Jumeaux et Jumelles
by sirocco.flow
Summary: Twinfic literally! Unexplainable events and elusive people combine and result in a clash between the Virus Twins and Neo's twin sisters...Intrigue, philosophy and kung fu aplenty, with a bit of Greek and Egyptian mythology thrown in for good measure! Now
1. Neo's Disappearance

Wow, my first fic! (So please don't be too mean when you review, lol!) I apologise for the constant switching between 1st and 3rd person narrative – 3rd person is just the random narrator, 1st person is one of my new characters.

Disclaimer: Believe me, if I owned anything from the Matrix, I'd be having a lot more fun than this…

Other disclaimer: I know now that I'm not the first person to give Neo siblings – but I thought of it on my own before I read other stories using the same idea.

---

Trinity sat staring blankly at the familiar falling green symbols, not taking any of it in. Morpheus came in quietly, and set a cup down next to her. He looked over at Neo, still lying motionless in his chair, eyes flicking back and forth beneath his eyelids.

His statistics were still the same - the same as they had been for a week. And it was obvious from Trinity's vacant expression that there was still no sign of him. She exhaled deeply and massaged her forehead.

"You need some rest," said Morpheus, laying a comforting hand on her shoulder. But she only shook her head.

"Someone has to watch for him." Morpheus sighed with a half-smile.

"You know it doesn't have to be you." She looked at the floor. "I thought it was Link who didn't trust me."

She paused and looked at him for a few moments, then slowly got up. He smiled and sat down.

Trinity moved over to Neo, and scanned the screen above his head. She knew there would be no change, but it had become a force of habit. She picked up his hand and held it gently. _Where are you?_

OoO

His disappearance had been very mysterious. They had been contacted by the Oracle, who had news for Neo. Naturally, he had jacked in with Morpheus, keen to find out what was so important. Trinity had been unconcerned, and wasn't even around when it happened, but Link was operating and watched it all.

Neo had been in and out of the Oracle's apartment uneventfully, and he and Morpheus were just setting off when something very strange happened.

The code blurred, jumped slightly, and then gave over to random symbols; the screens flickered and wouldn't display anything properly – not that there would have been anything worth seeing if they /had/ started working correctly. The code was jumbled beyond recognition, and Link lost the two companions instantly.

He tried everything he knew to rectify the situation, but nothing worked.

"Trinity! Come here, you gotta see this!"

As it happened, she had only been in the next room, and was able to appear before he had finished his sentence.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Link looked over at her.

"It's the code…something's seriously messed up over here…"

"Is it?" She came closer, and peered at the various monitors. "I don't see anything." Link looked back, to find that the code had indeed returned to normal.

"What…?"

"And look – there's Morpheus, right there." Link followed where she was pointing.

"Oh yeah." Trinity shook her head, and began to walk away. Link, however, was not so easily satisfied.

"Wait…" He scanned the screens another time, without success. "I don't get it. Where's Neo?"

OoO

Morpheus got himself to an exit independently, but when he woke up it was clear that he was not his normal self. His eyes were wide, his breathing heavy and his cheeks flushed from exhaustion. Link quickly strode over.

"Okay, what the hell just happened there?"

Morpheus looked up, his eyes misted over with confusion and horror. He was obviously in no fit state to talk about what had just taken place.

It took 5 hours until he was, and even then, the details he could recall were few and far between.

"Did Neo tell you what the Oracle had said to him?" Trinity asked. Morpheus paused, as if searching for memories from a decade ago.

"He said it was 'exactly what he needed to hear'." Trinity and Link exchanged glances. That could mean anything.

They spent about an hour asking similarly direct questions and getting similarly vague answers, and by the end they knew very little more than when they had begun. It was hopeless.

Once he had slept, however, Morpheus began to recover quickly, and within two days was enthusiastically helping in the search for Neo. But his memory did not return with his health, and it hadn't come to anything.

OoO

Trinity brushed a stray strand of hair out of Neo's face, and sighed. _Where are you?_ She thought again. _Where have you gone?_

Suddenly Morpheus jolted in his chair. Trinity, startled, spun round.

Morpheus' eyes were disbelieving as he read something on the screen. Trinity ran over.

"What is it? What have you found?" Her eyes flashed across the Matrix code, but Morpheus pointed to a different, smaller screen, displaying a message.

'You aren't the only people looking for Neo, you know. No - there are two people in the Matrix who are also trying to find him. And as it so happens/I/ am try to find /them/. If you can bring them to me, I can help you recover Neo. You'll know who it is I am looking for.'

They stared, stunned, then slowly looked at eachother. Trinity was the first to speak.

"Who is it from?" Morpheus tried to open the right menu, but the screen flickered and complained, and could only come up with a name, obviously a hacker alias. It could tell them nothing about where the message was sent from, and when Morpheus tried to send a reply, hoping the address would be displayed in the outbox record, the computer only whined even more. All they had was the short message, and the name of the sender. The name was Haroeris.

Morpheus shook his head. It was not a name he had come across before, and the chances of tracking whoever it was down were pretty slim after the performance the computer had just given. But it was something.

Trinity shrugged.

"I guess all we have to do now is figure out who he wants to find." She pulled up another chair and began to think, but Morpheus was already typing. She looked up.

"What are you doing?"

"I think I know who he meant."

-O-O-O-

Trinity tapped her fingers on the keyboard, waiting for the website to load. _They had better be here. If they're not, I'll………no. No - if they aren't, they probably just didn't get my message._

She had visited this hacker circle before, and knew most of the people relatively well. When she entered the chatroom under the name 'Red Queen', she got a few signs of recognition.

She wasn't kept waiting for long. Almost as soon as she was in, a window in the corner of the screen informed those present that 'FireoftheSky has entered the chatroom'. She smiled to herself. It was them.


	2. What Is Real?

Hello, nice to see you again! If you're interested in the philosophy in this chapter, try reading 'The Philosophy Files' by Stephen Law, or 'Taking the Red Pill: Science, Religion and Philosophy in the Matrix', which is by various different people. I have referenced many of the points made in both, so they're worth a look.

See 1st chapter for disclaimer.

"Which leads me on to the next question: how do we know what is real and what is not?"

Mr Ray surveyed us in silence for a few moments, while we thought about it and briefly gathered our answers.

Neither I nor my identical twin Hannah realised at the time the sheer irony that we should be discussing that topic on that particular day.

My hand was the first to go up.

"Yes, Sarah?"

"Well, you don't know really. And there isn't way of knowing. I guess you have to define 'real' first."

Mr Ray nodded.

"So this is what we must do first: define the word 'real'. Any suggestions?"

A girl at the back put her hand up.

"Well it's stuff that exists, isn't it? Stuff that's /there/ is real."

"So in order to know what's real, one has to know what is 'there'?" Summarised Mr Ray. The girl nodded assent. "And how do you know what is 'there'?"

"You see it and touch it and stuff. That's what your 5 senses are for."

Mr Ray smiled. He always does that before he poses a difficult question. I also smiled - at Hannah, who was sitting next to me: they were our favourite type.

"What happens when people aren't sure what they can sense?"

"How do you mean?"

Mr Ray cleared his throat and perched on the corner of his desk.

"Say a person takes a hallucinogenic drug, and imagines that they see a tree in front of them. They have forgotten that they took the drug, and so assume that everything they see is real. They can see this tree, and touch it, and when they step closer they can smell its flowers. They can hear the wind in the branches. They are absolutely positive that this tree is real. However, the effect of the drug begins to fade – and they see the tree before them starting to slowly disappear. Soon, it has completely vanished. Then they remember having taken the drug, and realise that, of course, the tree never really existed. It was just a hallucination. But suppose the effect of the drug never wore off? The tree would constantly /appear/ to exist. So, if the person /didn't remember taking the drug, how would they be able to tell whether the tree actually did exist or not?"

The classroom fell silent. Mr Ray was surveying us with satisfaction when Hannah put her hand up.

"That's the point, though, isn't it? There isn't actually any way of knowing what's real. Reality is just another set of beliefs. You have to /believe/ something is there in order for it to exist. People disagree all the time about what exists, like God, but we don't have any reliable way of determining who's right."

I nodded and continued.

"People used to believe that the world is flat. Now we believe it's spherical. But back then, the only way of finding out whether it was flat or not was by asking other people. Everyone said it was, so that was taken to be true. I suppose it goes as proof that asking other people is no way to tell what's real – like if you asked the person on drugs, they would have said that tree existed. You have to trust your own instincts, and your own senses. Your own reality."

Mr Ray chuckled.

"Unsettling thought, isn't it? Perhaps not the best note on which to end the class, but we in fact running a bit late, so you can pack up and go when you're ready."

Hannah and I flung our bags onto our shoulders, and made our way hurriedly to the door.

_What do we have next?_ Hannah thought. I could hear her thinking in my head, as if she were speaking out loud. Just a twin thing, I guess.

_ICT_, I thought. _And we'd better run 'cos we're meeting Red Queen. We're already late._

We usually spent our ICT lessons surfing the web and going on hacker circles instead of doing the work. It was much more interesting.

We paused in the classroom doorway.

"Bye, Mr Ray," said Hannah.

"See you tomorrow," I finished.

We never did.


	3. Merv's Problem

Wow, you're still reading? Good on you, my friend! The Merovingian does speak quite a bit of French – if he says anything important, I've put the translation next to it. If there's no translation, then don't worry about it – he's just grumbling. :)

Thanks so much for the reviews:) Yes, there will be a twin vs. twin showdown in the later chapters. Heehee! This chapter is mostly explaining the situation; after this things get juicy… Sorry so short, next chapter will be longer.

See 1st chapter for disclaimer.

---

The Merovingian paced restlessly up and down in front of his desk, brow furrowed, deep in thought. It was one of those times again.

He was hiding more rogue programmes than anyone else in the Matrix, and the authorities were well aware of it. He was very high on the list for deletion, along with nearly everyone he was harbouring, and the Architect was making yet another attempt at destroying him.

It was quite a regular occurrence, in fact – every year or so, someone (usually the Architect) would send a band of programmes after him, each one bigger and better than the last, but none had yet succeeded in taking him back to the Source.

It was a disturbance he was getting used to, even learning to ignore. Since he had found the Virus Twins, things had been considerably easier. But this time was different.

There were rumours going around that Neo had 2 younger sisters still in the Matrix. Of course, the Merovingian only saw potential in that – potential for his benefit. They, surely, could protect him from the Architect's henchmen? All he would have to do would be find them, free their minds, and get them on his side. The first and last parts wouldn't be hard at all. But the meatiest part of his plan was nigh on impossible for him.

No programme had the necessary means or authority to free minds. Only humans already outside the Matrix could do that. But it had to be done, or they would never reach their full potentials, which was what he needed. This was where his problem lay.

His chain of thought was interrupted by a knock on the door.

"Yes?" he called. Abel poked his head around the door, and held up several sheets of paper. The Merovingian nodded him in, and went over to shut the door behind him.

"Qu'est-ce qu'avez vous? What have you got?" Abel handed him the paper, and began to give him a brief narrative of the contents as he flipped through them.

"Neo's sisters are twins, Hannah and Sarah. Parents are divorced; they were living in Paris with their father, then in England with their mother, but she disappeared with an as-yet unidentified man when they were twelve and they ended up in a boarding school – the details are just there – and they've been there for the past 3 years. Socially introverted, philosophically inclined…minds just waiting to be freed."

The Merovingian shook his head as he scanned the information on the pages he held in front of him.

"Yes, yes - c'est vrai, mon ami, but who is going to do it?"

Abel grinned. "That's covered on the back page. Someone else is after them. We don't know who – some Egyptian guy by the sounds of things, but whoever it is has convinced Morpheus to do it for them."

"Morpheus?"

"Yes – we think it will be within the next week or so. If we can get hold of them after they're freed but before they're handed over to this other guy, then we're in."

"Seulement une semaine…a week is hardly any time. Merde, we are going to have to work fast." The Merovingian sat down behind his desk and put the papers to one side. "Go and find out when and where they will be after their minds are freed. Tell me when you know and I will send the Virus Twins to fetch them here. You have until tomorrow. Bon soir."


	4. Fire of the Sky

Now things really start happening…

See 1st chapter for disclaimer.

oOo

I waited 'til Mrs Johnsson had gone to the other side of the room, and fired up the internet. Hannah pulled her chair closer and I moved up so we could both see the screen. We'd been waiting a long time for this.

I logged on to the hacker circle where we were meeting Red Queen, under the name Hannah and I usually use when hacking and chatting together, FireoftheSky.

It was our first meeting with the Red Queen – or Trinity, as she was also known, and we didn't know how reliable she was. However, she was already there when we arrived.

"I've been waiting for you," she said.

"We know. Shall we?"

We went into a private chatroom. What we wanted to ask her about was not something we wanted heard publicly. We didn't know it at the time, but she was thinking the same thing.

We made a final check that Mrs Johnsson was occupied, and I began to type. My fingers were trembling.

'_FireoftheSky_: How long have you been waiting to talk to us?

_RedQueen_: About 15 minutes.

_FireoftheSky_: We've been waiting to talk to you for 7 months. You know something about Neo, don't you?

_RedQueen_: Yes.'

My breath caught in my throat. Hannah put her hand to her mouth. That's exactly what we were hoping for, but never in a million years did we expect to get it.

'_FireoftheSky_: What do you know? Do you know where he is?

_RedQueen_: Yes.

_FireoftheSky_: Will you tell us?

_RedQueen_: No.'

Our hearts dropped. Typical.

'_RedQueen_: Not while we're here. Anyone could overhear us.

_FireoftheSky_: Yes, of course. Where shall we meet you?

_RedQueen_: Wait. Slow down. First, tell me who you are.

_FireoftheSky_: We're his s-'

I began to type 'we're his sisters', as I would have answered anyone else who asked me that, but then thought better of it, and backspaced.

'_FireoftheSky_: We know him.

_RedQueen_: So do I. But you're not looking for Neo, are you?

_FireoftheSky_: What do you mean?

_RedQueen_: You're looking for Thomas Anderson.'

We gasped. _How does she know that? How does she know what his real name is?_ I thought.

_I don't know_, thought Hannah, _but if she knows that she probably knows a lot more. Go on, keep typing._

'_FireoftheSky_: That's right. How did you know?

_RedQueen_: I know a lot about you.

_FireoftheSky_: Like what?

_RedQueen_:I know you're his sisters and you've been looking for him ever since he went missing 7 months ago. I know you don't believe he was assassinated by the Mafia. I know you heard that I could help, which is why you're here now.'

We were both utterly stunned. I mean, we knew hackers have an uncanny way of gaining information, but that was just too much. This Red Queen character was obviously more than we had bargained for. Trouble was, we were too interested to leave. She knew too much about Tom.

'_FireoftheSky_: That's true. How did you find out?'

No reply. We paused. My fingers hung over the keys, waiting. She never answered the question. Instead, she asked another one.

'_RedQueen_: You're looking for something else, aren't you? Another way I can help you.

_FireoftheSky_: There is no other way you can help us. We just want to know where Thomas Anderson is.'

It felt strange, using his full name, when we were so used to calling him Tom. I didn't like it.

'_RedQueen_: Let me put it this way: why do you call yourselves FireoftheSky?

_FireoftheSky_: It means the sun and lightning – they were the twins born to the high god of Lithuanian legend.

_RedQueen_: You're interested in legends?

_FireoftheSky_: Yes. We're interested in the things people make up when they don't know the truth, or don't want to know the truth.

_RedQueen_: So am I. You want answers. I can give them to you.

_FireoftheSky_: What kinds of answers?

_RedQueen_: The ones you want. Meet me in the cathedral tonight at 21h.'

With that, she left. We sat completely still for several minutes, trying to take in everything that had just been said.

She knew where our brother was. She knew why we were looking for him. And she was willing to give us 'answers'.

But how did she know where we lived? Loads of cities have cathedrals; she could have meant anywhere. If she meant Salisbury cathedral, we would be utterly freaked.

It was just at that moment that something else very strange happened.

A window popped up in the corner of the screen, saying we had a message from 'Harsiesis'.

_Funny,_ thought Hannah_, do we know anyone called Harsiesis?_

_No…_

We looked at eachother inquisitively, then opened the message.

'Going already? You should know that it is important to return home before setting out on a journey. Romulus and Remus must return to Chiron before they can become Gemini.'

_What the hell…?_ I shook my head and deleted the message. _They must have sent it to the wrong person._

_Unless they were watching our conversation with the Red Queen? How else would they know we're going somewhere?_

_Oh come on Hannah, I bet there are loads of people going places tonight. Relax, it'll be fine._

But no sooner had I finished thinking the words than we received another message. I smiled. _We're popular this afternoon._

'You have been warned – don't go, or Sekhmet will bring down her wrath!

Re-Harakhti'

_What? Sekhmet? Re-Harakhti? What is going on?_ I quickly sent the message to the recycle bin.

_Sarah?_

_Mm?_

_Wasn't Sekhmet the Egyptian god of war and sickness?_

I looked at Hannah.

_Probably. But I wouldn't worry about it. Just a couple of random people sending random messages to us by mistake. They've probably just got the wrong address._

_I'm not so sure…_

_And anyway, even if they did mean us, it doesn't matter._

She knew it as well as I did – no matter what anyone said, we were going to meet this Trinity if it was the last thing we did.

Unfortunately, meeting the Red Queen meant sneaking out of school after hours. It was a risk – but one we were prepared to take.

At 8:35 we had changed out of our uniforms and were wearing black from head to toe. It was nothing unusual – we always wear that colour. And since we have black hair (Hannah's down to her hips and mine falling in dreadlocks around my shoulder-blades), and wear eyeliner most of the time, this apparently makes us "gothic".

However, it also means that we can hide in the shadows and slip out of school whenever we like, which, on this particular occasion, was worth the insults pathetically disguised as coughs as we walked past and Coke bottles that were usually thrown at us. The other kids at the school may be vaguely intelligent, but they're not by any means open-minded.

We slipped down the corridors and out of a science lab door that had been left open to air out the stench of burning aluminium. Being November, it was already dark, so we weren't seen as we wove our way silently through the gardens.

The only security cameras are on the school gates, so we climbed over the wall – an age old trick, but to our great relief, no one had dealt with it yet. Once on the road, we broke into a run.

It wasn't far to the cathedral, as we're usually dragged there every Sunday morning by school. There was a mid-week service beginning in half an hour, so the doors were open. We went quietly inside.

There were a couple of elderly ladies sitting side by side on the back pew, praying. We knew neither of them was the Trinity. _An appropriate name for someone we're meeting in a church_.

We scanned the other pews, but they were all empty. Then our eyes found their way to the front.

Standing in front of the alter was a figure all in black.


	5. Questions and Answers

Thanx for the review Amber! ) Always appreciated.

See 1st chapter for disclaimer.

5. Questions and Answers

We were shaking as we walked up the isle. We both knew it was Trinity standing there. We didn't know who she was, what she was doing here, or whether she really did know anything about Tom. For all we knew, she could be about to kill us. But we thought it unlikely that she would do anything violent in a cathedral with witnesses, so we trusted to fate and took the risk.

She stayed perfectly motionless as we approached. Then, when we were about 2 metres behind her, we stopped, and she turned around. She had a long coat with a glossy finish, black sunglasses, and short dark hair.

The three of us stood regarding eachother for a few long, silent moments. We were speechless with awe, all of us. Neither side was aware of it, but both had been waiting for this meeting for longer than they cared to remember – and here it was, happening. We were all looking for Neo, and each party saw the other as their key to finding him. Strange how things work out sometimes.

It was a good few minutes before Hannah got up the nerve to speak.

"Trinity." It wasn't much, it wasn't clever, but it was enough. She took off her shades, and looked at Hannah, then at me, replying,

"Artemis. Apollo."

I suppose it should have unnerved us that she also knew our individual hacker aliases, but we were too stunned to really notice. Neither did we think twice about the dangers when she asked us to come with her, and left the cathedral. The whole thing was so surreal that we just blindly followed.

She lead us down streets and alleyways that we didn't even know existed, and we've lived here since we were born. Tom used to live here too, before our parents broke up and he went to America with our dad. _He'd probably know where we were going if he was here now,_ I thought.

_Don't say that,_ thought Hannah, _we have other things to think about._

But it was too late. We had both been reminded of him and were already starting to miss him again.

_If we persist with Trinity, we might find him._ We hardly dared to hope it, but it was with that thought in mind that we entered a dark and dilapidated building in her wake.

The pursuit took us up 4 flights of stairs, and ended outside a door. It would turn out to be the last time we ever saw the world the same way again.

--

Trinity stopped next to the door, her hand resting on the handle, holding it slightly ajar.

"Now we can talk." She went inside, and we followed. Hannah shut the door behind us and we looked around. The room was very dimly lit, and thinly furnished. There were double sofas facing eachother with a coffee table in-between. On the table were 2 glasses of water. There was nothing else. There was another door in the opposite corner.

Hannah and I glanced around us, now shivering uncontrollably from a mixture of anticipation and adrenaline.

_If this goes horribly wrong, which door do we run through?_ I thought.

_The one we came through. We know where that one goes, _Hannah replied. I nodded, and we braced ourselves as Trinity began to speak.

"Sit down," she said. We exchanged glances before complying. She seated herself across from us, sitting up perfectly straight and looking like she was here to do business. "First thing's first. What are you looking for?"

"We're looking for our brother," we said together. She raised an eyebrow.

"And?"

"And nothing. That's it," Hannah said. I decided to let her do the talking. That's how it always has worked and always will – I do the thinking, Hannah does the talking.

"You're looking for something else as well, something you should find before you find Neo."

"What are you talking about?"

"Is there anything else that you've had to hack to look for?"

We looked at eachother again, unsure what to say – rather, unsure what to reveal.

"There is one other thing."

"And another person – apart from myself and Neo."

_How does she know this?_

Hannah looked down and twisted her fingers together, then took a deep breath and looked back at Trinity.

"Before our brother went missing, he was looking for a man called Morpheus. He was also trying to get information about something called the Matrix. We don't know what it is, but we've been trying to find out for a long time." Trinity nodded in an unsettlingly knowing way. "We wanted to know what interested him so much. But the more we searched, the more we became intrigued ourselves…" She paused.

_Don't get carried away, we don't want her to know too much,_ I warned. Hannah bit her lip. "We heard that it holds answers – that Morpheus knows answers – that's all. That's all we're looking for, it's nothing you can help us with."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that."

Now we were really suspicious. Tom almost drove himself mad searching for this 'Morpheus', trying to find out what this 'Matrix' is. Like we'd be able to find the answers this easily and this quickly?

_This has got to be a trap,_ I thought.

_Wait_, replied Hannah, _just wait a bit longer. Let's see how much we can find out before things get nasty._

I shifted nervously; my hand automatically went to my coat pocket where it found my kubotan1.

"Wh..what do you mean?" Asked Hannah.

Trinity sketched an experienced smile. "Let's just say I know more than you think." She stood up. "I probably know more than you can imagine."

She moved over to the other door. "In fact, I'd like you to meet someone who definitely does."

She opened the door, and a man stepped slowly and assuredly into the room. He was slightly taller than Trinity, black, and had a shaved head. For reasons of which I am to this day unaware, he immediately struck me as being unusually perspicacious, and I began to worry about what we might say.

I couldn't decide if it was a good sign or not that he had a trenchcoat very similar to mine. The 4 of us must have been quite a sight, all in our black overcoats and solemn faces. He broke the trend with a small smile.

"Good evening," he said, in a low voice. "My name is Morpheus."

----

1 A kubotan is a small weapon – I was introduced to them through ninjutsu but I think other martial arts use them aswell – that is basically a short stick of metal (e.g. aluminium). It can look a bit like black bamboo and you can carry them like keychains – but trust me, if you use them right, _they hurt_. (For a picture, go to http/shop.store. 


	6. Things Get Weird

Yes, I'm still here.

Yes, I'm still writing.

No, I don't own the Matrix.

OoOoO

Chapter 6: Things Get Weird

I couldn't truthfully say that I actually remember anything between meeting Morpheus and waking up on a strange bed in a strange room looking like a porcupine.

At first I naturally assumed I was dreaming – the location was unfamiliar and I don't usually wake up full of needles, but I seem to recall seeing Morpheus and him saying something very piquant about me waking /from/ a dream, not /in/ a dream. And anyway, I could sense Hannah lying near me without even looking, and knew I was safe as long as we were still together.

I do have some recollection of events prior to that, but it's so hazy I'm not at all sure I can trust my memory. I remember accepting a red pill, which I know now must have indeed taken place, although neither Hannah nor I expected to wake up anywhere apart from a hospital ward after taking a drug given to us free by a total stranger. Stupid, really, the things people will do when bribed with information. In our case, I think we were told that before we could find our brother, we had to find the truth.

In fact, my first proper memory aboard the Nebuchadnezzar was being run through the Matrix simulation and training programmes. I find it kind of ironic that my first legitimate memory of the real world was in fact just another simulation.

What I was being told at the time I blankly accepted; it was too strange to really understand. I don't think I would have believed anybody apart from Morpheus trying to solemnly tell me that the entire world is a computer programme into which every single person in existence is plugged, but there's something about the conviction in his face when he's being serious that would make me believe anything he said. The full implications of what we were shown didn't really hit either me or Hannah 'til afterwards.

I remember lying awake on a bunk bed staring at a metal ceiling, trying to figure out where I was – if I knew at all. I wasn't even convinced I knew /who/ I was any more. Morpheus had mentioned something about potential that could only be unlocked once your mind was freed, and this threw up all kinds of questions about what exactly the Matrix could control. Hannah and I spent more long hours than we care to remember having unspoken conversations about whether we thought it could control your personality, your actions, your decisions, and how those things could be affected by your physical capabilities.

Mind you, it was better than moping around aimlessly mourning my beautiful dreads. The concept of the Matrix and the real world mostly shocked and confused me, but losing all my gorgeous hair was just /rude/.

And yet it was in this dazed, sleep-deprived, self-conscious state that were shown our brother.

oOoOoOo

We didn't even know he was on the ship; he was in the far corner of the chairs, hidden in shadow most of the time. No-one had even mentioned him since we'd arrived; we assumed he was somewhere out in the real world and we were on our way to wherever he was (we hoped), but since we hadn't even had it properly explained why they had gone to all the trouble to free our minds, we didn't know what to expect. So you can imagine our surprise when Link turned the lights on and we realised who it was.

As it happened, we were just asking Morpheus about why we were there when it happened.

"So…apart from our own good," Hannah was saying, "how come you went through the whole thing of freeing our minds? I mean there must have been something in it for you. Some kind of quid pro quo."

Morpheus smiled. "You're nobody's fool, Artemis. There is something we need you to do," (here I noted his use of the word 'need' instead of 'want'), "but it's not so much for your benefit as for your brother's."

"What?"

He sighed deeply and turned to Link, who was moving around the chairs adjusting wires.

"Link," he said, and nodded his head in the direction of the dark corner. Link seemed to understand exactly what he meant, and reached over to flick a switch. A bright light above the furthermost chair flared into action, to illuminate Tom's sleeping form.

We froze. Keep in mind that we hadn't seen him for half a year, had been told he was dead, and hadn't truthfully expected to see him ever again, despite all the promises we had been made by Trinity and Morpheus. And suddenly, without warning, there he was. About 3 metres away.

I could feel a lump coming up in my throat. Hannah usually talks for both of us, she could talk for Britain if she wanted to, but all she could do then was stand and stare. I could hear the thoughts floating around in her head as she tried to form a coherent sentence, but nothing would come.

After a long silence, for once, I was the first to talk.

"Is he in the Matrix?"

Link bowed his head.

"No," said Morpheus, very quietly. "We don't know where he is."

"What? How can you not know?" Asked Hannah, finding her voice again. Morpheus and Link exchanged a meaningful glance as Hannah and I both rushed over to our brother.

Hannah was about to try and talk to him, but the sight of his face again made us both stop, mesmerised. Morpheus came quietly up behind us.

"Neo disappeared a week and a half ago."

We turned.

"A week and a half?" Asked Hannah. "I thought you guys had search programmes and shit, how can you lose someone for a week and a half!" I put my hand on her arm to try and calm her down, not that I blamed her for getting angry – I was too. They finally let us see Tom and then tell us that actually they have no idea where he is. Fantastic.

"I was with him when it happened, but I can hardly remember anything," said Morpheus, his voice still quiet.

"Was it to do with those agent people or whatever you call them?"

"We don't know. We don't think so because he's still alive and calm; Agents would have killed him, or if not they would still be fighting."

"It's so weird," muttered Link.

"But…I don't get it, what can /we/ do? I mean you guys are masters of the whole programme-simulation-computer thing, if you can't do anything what do you expect us to pull off?" We looked at Morpheus expectantly. He cleared his throat.

"We have been in contact with a hacker who claims he can help us find Neo. However, he said he was also looking for you two. We don't know what he wants you for, but we intend to track him down and find out what he knows without giving you over."

"Oh good," said Hannah, sarcastically. "So you're using us as bargaining, basically?"

We each raised an eyebrow at him, and folded our arms simultaneously. He smiled, almost laughing.

"No, there's more to it than that," he said, walking over to the computers. "For one thing, you would never let us use you for our own ends."

"Damn right!"

"And besides, don't you want to help him now that you know?"

"Well, yeah, but…"

"Good. Come and sit down here. If you're going to help, there are some more things you need to know."


	7. Defying Gravity

Enjoy! See previous chapters for disclaimer.

Chapter 7: Defying Gravity

My eyes shot open, breathless, and I looked over at Hannah from my chair. She returned the wide-eyed stare as we registered what had just happened.

Morpheus looked at us with a knowing smile creeping onto his lips. Hannah stuttered for a few seconds before managing to ask how many friggin' martial arts he had just loaded into our minds. He ejected the disc and simply said,

"Enough."

I put my hand to my head, not just out of habit but to make sure it was still there. We had been to some pretty intense ninjutsu sessions before, but that was insane.

There was a pause as we ran over a handful of the kick-ass moves we were now capable of.

"Can we try it?" I asked, somewhat apprehensively. Morpheus hit a few keys.

"Please do."

OoOoO

We looked around. The programme into which we had been loaded was clearly designed for martial arts training; the room we were in was a large, light dojo in traditional Japanese style. We looked at each other, then around the dojo, then at each other again.

Right on cue, Morpheus appeared behind us in a black gi.

"Welcome to the Sparring Programme."

His clothes prompted us to look down at ourselves; we found we were suddenly wearing gis too – mine black and Hannah's red. We exchanged glances and grinned.

"Cool get-up." Hannah commented.

Morpheus smiled. "You remember what I told you about Residual Self-Image?"

"Yeeaahh…" It took us a moment before we twigged, and our hands flew to the tops of our heads.

"Hair! I have /hair!" Exclaimed Hannah.

"My dreads are back! My gorgeous dreads!"

We squealed like 5-year-olds and resisted the urge to bounce up and down. A /look/ from Morpheus brought us back to earth.

"Sorry," we mumbled, fighting back grins, "we'll behave."

Morpheus rolled his shoulders and rubbed his hands together.

"Now, I think it's time I showed you what I meant about bending rules."

OoOoO

I threw my arms up in a series of blocks as Hannah came powering down on me…from the ceiling. The fun thing about sparring with my twin is that I know exactly what she's going to do next; I was dodging before her knee had even come up, and by the time she had flicked her foot out I was already leaping out of the way – over her head, as it happened. We could get used to defying gravity.

All of a sudden, Morpheus sprung in, and we both turned on him. And I'm telling you now, he was pretty bloody fast. But not fast enough for the both of us put together; it was like we'd been dosed up on valium on our way into the programme; our hands and feet flew in all directions.

After a few minutes even Morpheus couldn't handle us both and we went back to attacking each other. It wasn't 'til much later that we realised the significance of being able to defeat him so quickly.

Soon we were moving so fast I didn't have time to realise what Hannah was about to do next; even she didn't know. She dropped into a floor-sweep and I back-flipped over her leg before I even knew what was happening; the blade of my foot was shooting towards her head before I had told it to leave the floor. This was the best fight we'd ever had, by several miles.

I mean come on, we could bend almost any rule we liked; we weren't always subject to gravity and it appeared to be possible to defy time itself, our bodies moving so fast we just a blur of black and red. It was our first /proper/ fight.

And it wouldn't be the last.

OoOoO

"By the way," Hannah said at breakfast the next morning, "why do you always call us by our hacker names?"

"Mmmmm," I agreed, through a mouthful of 'porridge', "and Tom too. You keep calling him Neo."

Morpheus paused thoughtfully for a moment.

"It's about choice," he said finally. "He chose to be Neo instead of Thomas Anderson when he chose to accept the Real World. The name Thomas Anderson represented his identity within the Matrix. In letting go of that identity he let go of the Matrix."

We nodded, thinking about what he had just said.

"Sooner or later," he continued, "you're going to have to choose."

"Our identity?" I asked.

He looked me straight in the eye. "Are you Sarah Anderson? Or are you Apollo?"


	8. Vanished

Chapter 8: Vanished 

I sat with my feet on the desk staring absent-mindedly at the Matrix code, reading snippets here and there, watching people. Normal people. Doing normal things.

A little boy playing football in the park. A teenage girl trying to run in high-heels to meet her boyfriend on time. A middle-class couple going into an expensive restaurant for a special meal to celebrate their anniversary.

I made a point of not watching anyone I knew - that would just be weird. I kept wondering what they were doing, carrying on with their lives without us. I wondered if they missed us. I wondered what they'd been told, what explanations the machines had come up with to cover our disappearance. With Tom- I mean, Neo, they'd said he was probably assassinated by the Mafia. That was at least vaguely believable, given his records. But what could they come up with for us?

Trying to distract myself, I went to look and see if there had been any more messages from other ships. There hadn't. There never are during night-watches. For no other reason than I had nothing better to do, I went into the saved messages folder.

Scrolling down the list, I opened messages at random, scanning them with half my concentration while the other half went for a stroll.

Suddenly, something caught my attention. There was a name in the senders list that I didn't recognise. And yet somehow, it looked vaguely familiar. Haroeris…where had I heard that name before? My subconscious memory was saying 'Egypt' to me, but it wasn't helping.

And then it struck me. Of course, Haroeris was an Ancient Egyptian god – I'd seen the name in a pamphlet from the British Museum. But wait a minute…it also sounded very much like-

"Apollo?"

I jumped as Trinity came in.

"Mairde, Trin, don't do that."

She pulled up a chair and grinned.

"Mairde? What is that, French?"

I nodded. "Yeh, we grew up in Paris. Our dad's French."

"Really?"

"Mm-hmm."

"That's weird."

"How so?"

Trinity smiled. "So did I."

"Wow! You still speak French?"

"Nah, not for a long time. We moved to America when I was still small."

"Oh." I looked back at the screen and remembered what I was going to ask her.

"By the way Trin – who's Haroeris?"

Her face instantly darkened. "We don't know. He's the one who says he can help us find Neo. The one who wants us to take you two to him."

"Oh…" I paused. "There is something very weird going on." She looked at me inquisitively. "That day we were talking to you for the first time, we got two messages from these random people called Harsiesis and Re-Harkhti. Do you see where I'm coming from? The three of them…they're all the names of Egyptian gods. They must be related somehow."

Our eyes met as we realised. "A circle maybe…? I don't know." Trinity shook her head. "What do you think they want?"

"I dunno…but what I'm thinking is, if they know each other, then why would they be asking you to bring us to them when they clearly already knew who we were and how to reach us?"

Trinity sat back in her chair, staring hard in front of her as she thought. Finally she said, defeatedly, "Ask Morpheus."

OoOoO

But Morpheus didn't know either. All he could say was 'why hadn't we told him earlier about Harsiesis and Re-Harakhti'.

In fact, we didn't talk about Haroeris properly until the next day, when Hannah, Morpheus and I were in the sparring programme.

Morpheus was explaining about different kinds of traps that might be set and how we should avoid them. He was preparing us for the confrontation, trying to get us ready for this stranger who wanted us in return for our brother.

"We expect Haroeris is a human, and outside the Matrix. This means that he may well have the same knowledge and abilities as you as far as bending rules are concerned. So, you have to be careful."

Without warning, he leapt up into the air and I only realised just in time that he was falling towards me, with his leg out and his foot headed straight for my neck. With a millisecond to spare I spun out the way and blocked the punch he threw at me as he landed.

He straightened his gi and added, "Very careful."

"But he won't actually try to attack us, right? I mean there'll be both of us and you and Trinity, he wouldn't try and take us all on at once would he?" Asked Hannah.

"Who says he'll be alone?"

Hannah was about to say "good point" when something /very/ strange happened. She disappeared.

I jumped back and froze. Morpheus began to laugh.

"Link, re-load her." Nothing happened. "Link, that was a serious request." Still nothing happened. Morpheus looked at me. I was trembling.

"Apollo?"

I slowly looked up at him as a tear fell from my eye. "She's gone," I said, in a very quiet voice.

"What?"

"She's gone."

"What are you talking about? Gone where?"

"I don't know. Far away. I can't feel her."

"Apollo, look at me. What are you talking about?"

"She's my twin, Morpheus, I can sense her when she's close. And sometimes even when she's not. But she's gone. Completely."

Tears began to streak down my face. All Morpheus could do was take us out of the programme and scan Hannah.

As soon as the plug was out of my head I fell down by Hannah's chair, taking hold of her hand. It was going cold.

Morpheus looked at the screen above her head.

"Oh, no…"

"What?" I asked, urgently. "What is it?"

"Her vital signs…they're the same as…as…" His words fell short, and he finished his sentence by looking over at Neo. My heart stopped.

"Oh, no…"


	9. Twins Apart, Twins Together

As the twins are now split up, I can't always write from Sarah's perspective. Some of this chapter will be from the narrator's point of view (like Chapter 4); it should be fairly obvious where I switch between the narrator and Sarah. If it's confusing let me know and I will change it in the next chapter.

P.S. Again, there is some French in this chapter – I've translated the important bits; it there's anything that is left without a translation then it doesn't matter. If you want to know what it is anyway then e-mail me or stick it in your review. : )

See 1st chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 9: Twins Apart, Twins Together

Hannah regained consciousness very slowly. She was in bed. And it wasn't her rickety metal Neb bunk. It felt suspiciously like her own bed from school.

For one glorious moment, she came to the conclusion that everything – Morpheus, the Matrix, the machines – had all been a trippy dream. But there was something wrong. What was it…? Oh yes. Sarah wasn't there.

Suddenly realising that she couldn't sense her twin anywhere near, her eyes flew open and she sat bolt up right. And immediately had to lie down again.

_What the hell…_

She was in bed, just not her bed. In fact she was lying on top of the covers in a completely strange room that she had never seen before. From the stone walls it looked like a castle, and from the lavish decoration it looked like a hotel. The furniture was large, looked old, and made of very dark wood. There was a wardrobe, a chest of drawers, a dresser with a mirror, and several tapestries hanging on the walls, in rich dark colours that gave the room a medieval ambience. There were 2 doors.

Slowly easing herself off the 4-poster bed, Hannah crept furtively over to one of them. She stopped with her hand on the handle, and listened intently. Hearing nothing on the other side, she cautiously, ever so slowly, pushed it back.

She sighed in relief. It was just an en-suite. It was big for a bathroom, but her eyes were drawn straight to the countertop by the sink, where her red gi from the sparring programme lay neatly folded. She double-took and her hands flew to her body to make sure she was dressed. Thankfully, she was – but in her own clothes. Her own black trousers, her own red cami, her own black netting top. Her favourite outfit, appeared from nowhere.

_Weird…where the hell did that come from?_

Intrigued, she closed the door and made her way quietly over to the other. Now painfully conscious of the clumping of her boots that she had been previously unaware of, she crouched down next to the door to undo the sets of buckles. While she was kneeling, she heard voices coming from outside the door. She paused, leaving her fingers entangled in the laces, to listen. One of the voices was speaking in French.

_OK…so I'm in France…right…_

"Non, ce n'était pas nécessaire, mais je suis un peu impatient." It was a man's voice, but the reply sounded like a woman.

"Elle va se réveiller bientôt (she's going to wake up soon)."

_Are they talking about me? Oh shit…I'm not supposed to be awake yet!_

"Je veux la voire."

_Oh smeg they're gonna come in! What am I gonna do?_ Leaving her boots half-undone, she leapt back onto the bed and lay down as she had been when she awoke, trying to slow her breathing down to the snail's pace of a sleeper.

Her heartbeat raced as she heard a key turn in the door. _I was locked in?_ Quiet footsteps padded into the room and the voices hushed to whispers.

"C'est très émouvant, n'est-ce pas?"

_Exciting? How am I exciting? This is so peculiar._

There was a momentary pause where the room fell silent and it sounded to Hannah that her breathing was the only noise in the building. To her relief, the visitors decided to leave her to sleep, closed the door behind them, and continued down the corridor, their footsteps and voices fading slowly.

When she was sure they were gone Hannah sat up, pulled her boots off, and grinned to herself.

_They didn't lock the door behind themselves. Idiots._

She jumped down from the bed and walked over to the door. She stopped briefly to listen for any more people, then tentatively pulled it back. _Right. Let's find out what the hell's going on._

She crept out into the corridor and looked up and down. It was long and panelled, with oil paintings hanging here and there. At one end was a staircase leading up, at the other, a staircase leading down. Deciding that going down would probably get her closer to an exit, she turned left and started to walk, keeping her ears open for footfall behind her or movement behind the many doors she was passing. She didn't think she was being followed.

She could never have known.

OoOoO

I almost cried out in frustration and kicked the table leg.

"DAMNED COMPUTER! STOP SAYING SHE DOESN'T EXIST!" I could feel tears of nonfulfillment starting to sting my eyes.

"Why don't you take a break, Apollo?" I exhaled heavily and moved aside to let Link sit down. "We will find her. Don't worry." I looked at him blankly, clearly not believing what he was saying.

I went over to Hannah, lying motionless in her chair, pale-faced and disconcertingly cold. _I'm coming for you Hannah. I will find you. Just hang on._ A tear rolled down my cheek at the feeling that I was sending my thoughts into a brick wall. She wasn't receiving anything.

"Where are you looking, Link?" I asked, unable to tear myself away from the search. When no reply came, I turned. "Link?" He was staring dumb-founded at the screen. "Link what is it?"

"I think I've found her…"

"What!" I jumped up and ran across to the monitors. "Where? Where?"

"Well it looks like…no that can't be right."

"What is it!" I was nearly screaming at him. "Link, tell me!"

"It's saying she's…in the Merovingian's chateaux…"

"The who's what?"

"You don't know who the Merovingian is?"

"No…should I?"

He looked at me with a raised eyebrow.

"I'll let Morpheus explain." He turned back to the screen. "I wonder if it'll let me search within the chateaux…hmm…oh, who's that?"

"Is there someone with her?"

"Looks like two people…actually it looks like…oh shit!"

OoOoO

Hannah got to the bottom of the stairs to find they met another corridor. She halted on the penultimate step and flattened herself as best she could against the wall, trying to peer round the corner at the same time. To her horror she saw someone appear from an open doorway near the end of the corridor. Knowing there was no-one behind her, and silently thanking the powers that be that there wasn't, she turned around to make her way back.

She froze.

At the top of the steps, having appeared out of thin air, were 2 men. They looked like identical twins – if they weren't then there was something unnatural about them. Neither would have surprised her. They were dressed in silver and white from head to foot; even their faces were white. And for some reason, they were wearing black sunglasses. However, nothing about their unusual appearance even touched Hannah – she was petrified on the spot and incapable of thinking or doing anything.

After a pause, they began to move down the stairs towards her, in flawless synchronisation. She tried to back away but found herself completely unable to move. They started to speak, one carrying on the sentence the other had started, the switch so seamless it would sound to a blind man like one person talking.

"Well, well, well-"

"What have we here?"


	10. Charades

Well here you are, another chapter, hope you enjoy it. Thanks everyone who's left a review, they make me happy! grins inanely Especially Mystic Kyra, it's really nice to have a faithful reader  

See 1st chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 10 – Charades 

Hannah flew down the corridor, the Twins only a few paces behind her. Registering that the corridor was a dead end she dove through a door on her left, not knowing or caring what was behind it. She barely took in the room as she sped through it, willing her feet to move faster. The voice of her ninjutsu instructor from when she was younger came into her head, the one thing he always seemed to be saying: "Quicker feet, come on /quicker feet/."

She raced through room after room, corridor after corridor, not having any idea where she was going, or where she was trying to get. If she had been able to concentrate on anything else, it may well have struck her as odd that the building didn't appear to have any beginning or end. No matter where she went, there was always somewhere new to go, always another way out so she didn't have to go back on herself. With retrospect she decided that she definitely should have realised – normal buildings just /aren't like that/.

However, one thing she was aware of was that in a normal chase she would have been caught very quickly by 2 grown men. Why was it taking so long?

_Oh no…they're doing this deliberately…they're trying to wear me out, I know it…_ She knew she ought to stop, if that was what they were doing, but was too afraid. The only reason she had managed to start running in the first place from being frozen to the spot was the production of a pair of very clean, very sharp-looking switchblades. She knew how to deal with armed attackers…but was too afraid to risk it.

_Do I run, do I fight them…do I run, do I fight them…well if I'm going to have to fight them eventually, at least if I stop now I'll have enough energy left to do it properly…but if I keep going I might find a way out and I can avoid it entirely._

Luckily, the decision was made suddenly made easier – in a way she would never have expected.

OoOoO

"Right, you pinpoint the location, I'll get myself set up," I said, striding over towards a chair, "then I can jack in and-"

"Wait, wait, wait," Link interrupted. "I can't just send you in."

"Why not?"

"Well first, Morpheus'd kill me, and second, it might not even be the chateau. It might be a disguise location, or a trap. We need to get a proper search on it."

I sighed irritably. "Fine, fine, run a 'proper search' then."

Link scratched the back of his ear nervously. "Well…thing is, I can't do it. Only Morpheus can, he's the only one who could do a decent job of it."

"Great. Fan-fking-tastic." I threw myself down in a chair and slumped my head into my hands. He put his hand on my shoulder hesitantly, not sure how to be comforting. Even in the state I was, I was touched by his concern. I managed a lop-sided smile and tried to soften my voice a bit.

"Well Morpheus'll have to do it then." I hesitated as Link looked like he was about to get up. "Hey, look, just let him sleep for a bit. If it's a trap now it'll still be a trap in the morning, at least he'll be able to do it decently if he's had a full night's sleep."

"You sure? I thought you couldn't wait that long."

"Yeah well, I might be impatient, but I'm not taking any risks. He'll do it best in the morning." Link nodded, and tried unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn. I smiled. "Why don't you go to bed, too? It's the end of your watch anyway. I don't mind staying up."

He looked at me through weary, worried eyes. "Don't you think you should be getting some sleep too?"

I shook my head and looked at the floor. "Nah, I don't mind." I glanced over at Hannah and added quietly, "I can't sleep while she's in there, anyway."

He nodded and rubbed my shoulder. "OK." He got up and started to turn, then stopped and looked back at me. "Don't worry. We will find her. You'll see her soon."

When he'd gone I turned back to the computer screen, spread my fingers over the keyboard and began to type furiously. I felt guilty about leading Link on, but I would never have got him to leave otherwise. I took the operator's head set he had left for me and hung it on a hook under the desk, got up and checked everything once more before heading over and settling myself into the chair next to Hannah.

_Morpheus is gonna kill me for this…but I'm sorry, I am /not/ leaving my twin's life in the hands of their computers. Screw techni-crap searches, she's my twin, I can find her myself._

I reached over and squeezed her disconcertingly cold hand. _I'm coming for you, Hannah, I'll be there soon._ I reached back, shut my eyes tight, and took hold of the plug.


	11. Harendotes

Chapter 11 - Harendotes

I opened my eyes and looked around. It looked as though I was in the right place; I was heading for a chateau, and currently I was surrounded by stone walls with a large deep-coloured tapestry hanging behind me. But more than anything else I knew I was in the right place because I could sense Hannah nearby. The hole was filled.

_Hannah? Is that you?_

_Shit! Sarah! Where did you come from?_ Not bothering to explain, I opened up my mind and let her explore my memory for herself. She found the memories of how I had got there and what I had done. _Oh Sarah…Morpheus is gonna /kill/ you…_

_Yeh I know, but I didn't have any choice. Anyway, how the hell do I get to you? I don't know my way around this place._

_Neither do I. It's fine, it's not that hard to navigate, and anyway as long as we can still sense each other in this programme or whatever the hell it is we can just do it like that. Oh by the way, check out what your wearing. I think I've been programmed with my own clothes but I have no idea how that happened…there is something definitely weird about this programme, I didn't know they could change stuff like that or how it knew what to give me. I thought you uploaded your clothes in the Construct and that was it, but apparently not._

I looked down and started. _Me too! Creepy._ I peered into her mind and found the memory where she had looked in the mirror in the chateau bedroom and couldn't decide whether to groan or laugh. _Han…they've given us the same clothes…_

_Oh you're joking, we haven't worn the same thing since we were, like, 7!_

Suddenly her mind changed direction and I was hit by a wave of her fear. _Oh god, Sarah, you gotta help, there are these 2 guys and they've been chasing me for bloody ages, I can't fight them on my own!_

_Okay, okay, calm down, just hide as soon as you can, I'll come and find you. We can take them on together, it'll be fine. After all, we know kung fu._

We giggled internally together and Hannah followed my instructions. Once she had stopped moving and I knew she was safely hidden away, I began to follow my senses in order to find her. I knew she was about 3 floors below me and there seemed to be a good network of stairs and corridors to get me there, and I ran for a good while without being stopped or even meeting anybody. I only had a few hundred yards to go and was getting ready to see her climbing out of the chest where she was hiding. I should have known it wouldn't be that easy.

OoOoO

The Merovingian looked up from his book, disturbed by the sound of fast-moving feet in the corridor outside his office. Sighing, he slowly raised himself from the leather chair behind his desk and wearily made his way over to the door. Opening it and leaning out to see who was coming, he had to restrain himself from jumping. That wasn't supposed to happen.

OoOoO

Just as I was approaching the room Hannah was in, a door opened a few metres ahead of me and a man poked his head out. I froze and for a few moments we just stared at each other. I could feel my heart trying to pound its way out my chest as the adrenaline started to kick in – I was realising that I had absolutely no idea what to do. Finally he stepped out of the doorway and looked me up and down, then smiled as if he recognised me.

I took a step backwards, starting to feel threatened even though he was smiling at me.

"Ah, I see you 'ave woken up at last," he said, with a think French accent.

I hesitated before speaking. "Who are you?" I was already guessing, but needed to make sure.

He took another few steps forward and unclasped his hands in a friendly gesture. "Je suis le Merovingian." He held out his hand. "Enchanté."

_So this is the famous Merovingian. Time to get down to business._ I made a point of not accepting his hand. Instead I crossed my arms over my chest and looked at him from under my brow.

"What the hell are you trying to do with my twin?"

He paused for a moment, looking slightly confused. "She is not 'ere yet. But if you want to see 'er, she will be coming soon, I assure you."

_Hang on…she is here…what?_

He suddenly noticed my dreads and reached out to touch them; I stepped back defensively.

"But what 'ave you done to your 'air?" It was then that I realised what was happening.

_He thinks I'm Hannah! OK how can I use this to my advantage? Um…let's see…I wonder if he'll tell me what he's up to?_

"So, er, why am I here exactly?" I ventured.

He chuckled and put his hand on my shoulder, gesturing with his other as if to lead me into his office. I stayed stubbornly where I was, having decided to take no shit right from the start.

"Just answer the question." He sketched a nearly-nervous smile and said,

"I think this takes a little bit of explanation. Please, sit down."

Before I could respond, my heart jerked as I was struck with panic from Hannah.

_Couilles, Sarah, they're in here! They're in the room! I swear they're gonna find me in a minute, you gotta come now! _

_Okay, I'm coming. Don't worry!_

Without even bothering to explain, I set off at a sprint down the corridor, managing to shout "Nice to meet you!" over my shoulder. It was a lie, but I felt I ought to say something.

OoOoO

Morpheus sighed deeply and massaged his temples.

"When did you see her last?"

Link thought for a moment. "Would've been about 3am, when I came off my watch."

"And you're sure she didn't tell you, or give you the impression, that she was planning to go and look for Artemis?"

"No, sir, she said she was gonna wait for you to search."

"Well she was intending to do something. She's left everything perfect." He examined again the operator's headset that had been left neatly on its hook, and muttered under his breath, "I should have seen this coming."

"With respect, sir, maybe we should start searching in the Matrix rather than looking for clues in the ship," said Link nervously, not sure whether he was irritating Morpheus. He was relieved to hear Morpheus say,

"You're right, Link. Trinity, watch her vitals for me."

Trinity obediently moved over to Sarah's chair and adjusted the screen to her eye-level.

"Alright, go ahead."

But just as Morpheus was preparing to start the search, a message appeared on one of the lower communication screens. He opened it.

'No need to waste time searching. Apollo is with Artemis in the king's castle. I need you to bring them both back very soon. I'm running out of time, and don't forget why you need to bring them to me.

Harendotes'

"Those guys again," said Link, leaning in to get a closer look.

"Claiming they know where the twins are as well as Neo," added Morpheus. He gave a slight shake of the head. "It's impossible."

There was a long silence. Trinity stood awkwardly looking between the two of them, wondering what to do. Finally Link sat down.

"What are you gonna do, sir?"

Morpheus continued to stare at the screen, his brow knitted, thinking hard.

Trinity came back over, not knowing what it was that had come up on the screen. She read the message for herself and asked,

"What do they mean by the 'king's castle'?" She exhaled sharply in frustration and threw herself down into the third chair, next to Morpheus. "You'd think if they were so keen for us to find them they'd stop talking in riddles!"

"Working it out isn't the problem. I know exactly where they're talking about. The problem is going there." He rose and held the headset out to Link, who looked up at him in confusion as he slowly accepted it.

"Sir, you're not-"

"Just do it, Link."

"Morpheus, no. We've already lost 3 crewmembers to this, we can't lose our captain!"

"You won't."

"We don't even know where you're going!"

"To the Merovingian's chateau. Link, I need you to stay alert. First sign of trouble, and I'll need an exit. I just need to know if the twins are really there or not."

Seeing Trinity's bewildered expression, he added, "I'll explain later, Trinity. Just get the plug."


	12. Imbroglio

Chapter 12 - Imbroglio

Stopping outside the door, I rested my hand on the handle and listened. I could sense Hannah just on the other side, but couldn't hear anything else. I was hesitant to go in; I was dying to see Hannah again but I didn't want to risk a fight if I could avoid it.

_It's okay, Sarah, come in, I heard them leaving a minute ago, _she thought to me. _Come on, I need to see you! _Relieved, I pushed the door open, and saw Hannah standing there next to the wooden chest in which she'd been hiding.

For a moment we stood sharing an incredulous stare, then Hannah cracked a smile that could have broken her face in half and we threw our arms round each other. I was still feeling guilty about what I'd done to get there, but it was well worth it to be able to hug my twin again, to be able to feel her presence next to me and share all our thoughts together.

_I can't believe you're here! I missed you so much! _We were both thinking the same thing, as usual; I'd been so scared for Hannah, and she'd been scared for herself.

I stepped back and looked her up and down, almost unwilling to believe it was really her. Suddenly we both started laughing at ourselves as we realised how ridiculous we looked dressed identically again for the first time in about 8 years.

However our laughter stopped abruptly when the door on the opposite side of the room started to open. I instinctively grabbed Hannah's arm and pulled her back so she was just behind me. To her horror, two men came in whom I didn't recognise, but she clearly did.

_Oh shit…they're the guys that were after me earlier…we're so screwed…_

I flexed the fingers on my left hand and they automatically snapped into a knife-hand, anticipating what was going to come next. They walked slowly towards us in perfect unison; it was like one man walking next to a mirror. They reminded us uncannily of ourselves.

They stopped about 2 metres away from us and stood still, just looking from me to Hannah and vice versa over and over again. Finally the corners of their lips curled in identical Mephistophelean grins and they disappeared. Not instantly; they became transparent green like the souls of two dead men, and sank slowly into the floorboards.

Hannah's grip on my arm tightened.

_That is not natural._

We looked sidelong at each other.

_They must be programmes,_ I thought. _What else could they be?_

Hannah snorted indignantly. _Huh, programme? Virus, more like._

OoOoO

Morpheus crept along the corridor, staying as close to the wall as he could, his hand ready to whip a gun from inside his voluminous trench coat.

He slowed down as he recognised the sound of voices coming from a room quite nearby. He crept closer, and began to be able to make out the voice of the Merovingian and a few others whom he couldn't place. Suddenly he thought he heard his own name, and slid up to the door, pressing his ear to the wall beside it.

They were talking about the twins.

"…brought Artemis here yesterday. She woke up zis morning, I saw 'er only a few moments ago."

Morpheus smiled to himself. That was one of them accounted for. So Artemis was here, that was a good start. But what about Apollo?

"Is the other one here yet?" He heard a stranger's voice say.

He leaned in as close as he could without denting the wall.

"No, not yet. I 'aven't sent for 'er yet, but I will very soon. J'ai besoin des deux.I need them both."

Morpheus cursed silently. Harendotes was lying, then, or misinformed. That was very bad news, as they were relying on the Egyptian hackers to find Neo.

"Where's Artemis now?" Inquired a second unrecognisable voice.

"Oh, somewhere about. When I saw 'er she ran off for some reason, was scared of me per'aps?" He laughed. "Non, chepa I dunno. I wouldn't worry, the Virus Twins will find 'er and bring 'er back if she tries anything…stupid."

Morpheus could have hit the wall with frustration. He had heard enough. Silently, he glided back along the corridor 'til he reached a bend and then broke into a run. He scrambled back to the exit they had planned and put the ringing phone to his ear without hesitation.

He would return for Artemis before they continued the search for Apollo, who ought to be easier to find as she had left of her own accord. But if the Virus Twins were going to be involved, then getting Artemis back was not a job he was intending to attempt on his own.

He never found out that he had left his spy-hole outside the Merovingian's office too early.

As Morpheus reached the bend in the corridor, the Virus Twins phased through the wall and materialised in front of their master's desk. He went back the Nebuchadnezzar without hearing them explain that they had just seen both the twins together, and should they go after them or leave them be.

Neither did he hear the Merovingian's permission for the Virus Twins to bring Hannah and Sarah back to him by whatever means they found most entertaining.


	13. The Dining Room

I'm really sorry this chapter is late; I left school last week and have had so many exams I didn't even realise I'd forgotten to write the next chapter! I've tried to make it longer than normal to compensate )

See first chapter for disclaimer

Chapter 13: The Dining Room

Morpheus sat up slowly, keeping his eyes on the floor. Trinity cursed and looked away.

"She isn't there, is she," Link said, more of a statement than a question.

"Who?" Asked Morpheus, suddenly finding the ability to look up.

"Apollo." Morpheus shook his head.

"But Artemis is, or so it would seem."

"Artemis? Well, Apollo did go in looking for her so that's good I guess…"

"No it isn't. Even if we know for sure that she's there, which is uncertain, we're still left with three other questions."

"What questions?" Asked Trinity.

Morpheus stood and made his way over to the monitors, only to sit down again, heavily. Link moved over to allow him a better view of the screens.

"Firstly, where's Apollo gone if she was heading for the right place? Secondly, why did Harendotes tell us that they were both there when they aren't? And thirdly, how much time do we have left before Haroeris asks for them? The circle evidently know that they're here…maybe they're allowing us time to get out of this fix first."

Trinity stiffened at the mention of Haroeris' name and moved to Neo's body, as if her being there could offer him some protection.

"I know you're impatient, Trinity, but some things take time." Morpheus was trying to be comforting, but there was very little he could say to soothe her, and his mind was on other things besides finding the right words. He struggled for a moment as he realised that his remark hadn't helped and tried to search for some better assurance. Link smiled. It was times like this when he most admired his captain, and his undying strength of character. Morpheus' mind finally faltered and he could only think of,

"As soon as we find the twins we'll go straight to Haroeris and see about getting Neo back." He paused. "You have my word." Trinity's hard expression melted slightly. She valued his word above all other promises and was moved that he had thrown it away on such an unpredictable event.

"But first we have other problems. Link, I take it you already know that the Virus Twins are involved." Link only nodded silently; Trinity jerked and her eyes widened in shock.

"You're not serious?" She put her hand to her head and shut her eyes. "Oh Jesus."

"That's why I came back. I do intend to pull Artemis out, no matter who the Merovingian employs, but I know that man better than to risk his henchmen alone."

"Very sensible, sir," said Link. "So what, are you and Trin going?"

"Shortly."

"We are?" Trinity was about to add an irritated 'thanks for telling me', but restrained herself. If Morpheus could be courteous when under pressure then so could she.

"I'm sorry, Trinity, but we have no choice. I didn't encounter anyone and I hope we'll have equal luck when we go in this time. But precautions must be taken. Especially where viruses are involved."

OoOoO

Hannah and I continued to looked at each other, her grip on my arm not loosening.

_This place just gets weirder and weirder… at least they've gone._ But we both knew they'd be back, and soon. _So where do we go now? If they come back here we'd better move._

_Yeh, but we won't know where they'll come back. They could be anywhere, they must have come out of thin air the first time I saw them. I guess we just try and find an exit as soon as we can._ _Come on._

Not knowing where else to go, we started to head for the door the other twins had come through. After all, we reasoned, it had to lead somewhere. We emerged into a connecting room, a dining room with a long table. It was set for 14, with enough cutlery for several courses and multiple wine glasses. There were 2 candelabras at either end of the table, with the candles lit and burning effervescently. We hesitated to stay as it looked as though the room was expecting its guests soon, but as Hannah was briskly moving towards another door, I noticed something strange.

I lent towards the tabletop and looked closer, trying to see if my eyes were deceiving me. They weren't. There was dust on the plates. And not even a light sprinkling as if they hadn't been wiped when they came out of the cupboard; the layers were thick. I brushed off the nearest chair and sat down, peering closely at everything else. It was all the same – blanketed with what had to be several years' worth of dust. I looked up and down the table incredulously.

_What the hell is this place? _

I absent-mindedly started to run my finger around the rim of a wine glass; my finger was damp with nervous sweat and the vibrations in the glass started to turn into an eerie echoing note. _It's as if this Merovingian's been waiting for guests for so long he's habitually expecting them…why are the candles still lit? I wonder if he is still expecting people…and who it is… _I could never have understood the irony of my thoughts. Until that day he had been waiting for people. He had been waiting for us.

Hannah stopped at the door and turned around. I met her gaze and we both knew we had to go. There was nothing normal about this place, and the sooner we left it the better. But before we could move, we heard movement in the next room, where we had just been. We didn't have to look to know who it was. Without hesitation we leapt for the door. I stumbled getting up as my leg got caught in the chair; I kicked myself free, leaving the chair to clatter noisily to the floor. We darted through the door and burst into a run.

For once, the castle of corridors failed to produce any, and we found ourselves streaking through a swift succession of large rooms, all connected by the same series of doors, one at either end of each room, in line with all the others. The absence of corners made our progression faster, but we were painfully aware that any advantage we had, our pursuers would also have.

Even if they didn't somehow psychically know where we were, we knew they would have heard us noisily fleeing the dining room, the crash of the chair resounding in my ears over and over again. They didn't need to pick up our scent, I had handed it to them on a plate. I silently apologised repeatedly to Hannah for giving us away, but all she did was reassure me that they would have found us anyway. Despite my guilt, I knew she was right.

At the end of the rooms, we came into a short section of hallway, with 2 doors – one facing us at the opposite end, and one on the left halfway down. We decided to take the latter, doing everything we could to be unpredictable and break our trend. We found ourselves in a large marble-paved entrance hall, facing a pair of titanic doors. On either side of us, two sides of a split staircase wound their way up the left and right walls, meeting in a balcony directly above us. The marble walls were covered, from floor to ceiling, in a collection of weaponry. I looked around in amazement.

_Shit, if this place wasn't a simulation it would have cost a bomb! Is it real marble, do you think?_

_Depends what you mean by 'real'._

_Point taken._

Suddenly, the doors behind us slammed open and the twins surged in. We didn't have time to stop and think about what to do; we just automatically separated and began to hurdle up the different staircases, in the hope that they would both pursue one of us, leaving the other one the opportunity to do something clever. They weren't that inexperienced.

It is at this point that I feel I need to tell you something about the strange world of twins, in the hope that it will explain the stupid thing we did next. Sometimes, twins can be subject to a phenomenon casually called 'mirror twins'. This means that without realising it or intending it, they mirror each other perfectly – if one turns left, the other will turn right. You've probably guessed that Hannah and I fit into this category, and that is why when we reached the balcony, instead of meeting each other and continuing the flight together, I carried on through the door on my left, and Hannah through the door on her right.

I got halfway across the room before I registered that Hannah was moving away from me, and spun round. It was too late. One of the men in white was standing in the doorway. He grinned demonically. I now didn't have a way out, a way back to Hannah. From her thoughts I realised that we were, almost humorously, still in a flawless mirrored situation, right down to the way her personal hunter was grinning at her in the same way as mine was at me. Our decision was simple and simultaneous. We ran.

It felt like I was repeatedly being punched in the gut to think that I was now running away from Hannah, whom I had come to rescue, and that I had no choice. I tried to push it from my mind and concentrate on escaping my stalker in time to still help her, it was the only thing that kept my legs moving. Fortunately for Hannah, she had more luck than me – she had only been through a few rooms when she dove behind a curtain, kicking the door to make it move as though she had been through it as she went. Her pursuer took the bait and she was left temporarily safe.

I, however, took longer. I stopped paying attention to where I was, stopped noticing my surroundings at all. It was difficult deciding what to do – I naturally wanted to get back to Hannah as soon as possible, but didn't want to lead the twins to her. The decision was making my brain hurt so I stopped thinking.

He slowly gained on me as I ran, until we reached a point where he could grab me if he reached out. There was a light behind us and I saw the shadow of his hand coming towards me; I almost screamed and tried to change direction. There was a door on my right and I tumbled through it, turning and slamming it behind me. I leant against it momentarily, trying to catch my breath. My heart was pounding so fast it hurt and I was close to hyperventilating. I could feel him trying to open the door and pushed all my weight against it. There was little point running again now. I was exhausted and he'd only catch me, there wasn't anywhere for me to go. As I looked around for a possible way out in case worst came to worst, I realised I was back in the dining room. But there was something different about it that I couldn't place at first.

When it struck me, my stomach hollowed. Everything was clean. In the time it had taken us to run down to the entrance hall and back, someone had been in and polished everything; the glasses glinted in the candlelight and the reflection of the candelabras could be seen in the plates. It really was ready for guests now – there were even name cards at each place. Distracted, my hand slipped of the handle and I moved away from the door, staring at the name card next to the head of the table. It had my name on it.

OoOoO

Hannah peeped out from behind the curtain nervously, scanning the room for any signs that she wasn't alone. Finding none, she cautiously stepped out from behind the curtain. Now that she wasn't being followed, she could find Sarah without leading anyone to her. She crept back the way she had come until she reached the great hall. She hesitated; Sarah was moving so fast that even if Hannah tried to follow her she'd never catch up. There was no indication of where Sarah was intending to go next, either, so she couldn't even try and meet her along the way.

Not really knowing where she was going, she began to plod down the staircase and into the main lobby. She stood for a moment in the middle of the floor looking, and feeling, dazed. Too much had happened too quickly and her mind was refusing to take in all the data, let alone compute it to come out with a rational decision about what to do next. She couldn't run away from the twins because she didn't know where they were, and she couldn't run after Sarah because she was changing situation too fast to keep up. It was hopeless.

Her common sense abruptly kicked in. _What are you doing, Hannah? You're twin is in trouble and you're just standing there? Get a move on! Go after her! Hurry up, you don't know what might be happening to her! _

She shook herself, and with new resolve, set off purposefully across the hall and through the door beneath the balcony. Fortunately, she sensed Sarah stopping still, and was able to pinpoint her rough location, giving her at least a sense of direction. As she was starting to build up into a run, Sarah suddenly began talking to her.

_This is creepy, Han…I'm in the dining room and it's been all done up…there are name cards on the places and there are two with our names on. It's creeping me out._

_Don't panic, Sarah, I'm on my way. Where's the guy?_

_What guy?_

_The guy following you! Sarah, what are you doing?_

_Oh that guy…shit!_

_Sarah?...Sarah?..._

Hannah gulped as Sarah started to think about something else, she couldn't tell what but it involved fear. As panic started to mount, Hannah ran faster towards the dining room, through all the numerous chambers they had passed through before. But no matter how fast she ran, she wasn't fast enough.

OoOoO

I had completely forgotten what was going on, so drawn in was I by the peculiarity of the change in the dining room. Had Hannah not reminded me, I wouldn't have remembered until he burst in. Luckily, thanks to my twin's reminder, I had had enough time to leap behind the table by the time he entered. We stood looking at each other. He walked slowly until he was on the opposite me, the table standing between us. He took a step to the right; I automatically stepped to the left. He moved back to his original position and so did I. It was like some strange ballroom dance – we were certainly in the right setting. We stood still again for a minute and then he tried darting suddenly round the table, but I was too fast for him and we had exchanged places before he realised I was reacting to his movement.

He glowered at me from across the board and I smiled back seraphically. I enjoyed the brief moment of being able to taunt him, momentarily pretending that I had a change in hell of getting away. But we both knew he was my superior and he took the opportunity to prove it.

Slowly, he began to morph into his green ghost form. I felt my heart stop and my stomach drop as he rose into the air and floated over the table. His feet were passing through it. I backed away until I hit the wall and couldn't even bring myself to scream as he came down.


	14. The Keymaker

Wow, this story is getting quite long isn't it…? Lol! Xx Thanks for reviews people  please let me know what you think of this chapter!

See first chapter for disclaimer

Chapter 14: The Keymaker

As she realised what was happening, Hannah increased her speed until she was running so fast she couldn't even see where she was going. She would have kept going at this rate until she reached Sarah, had she not collided with someone halfway through a room. Immediately assuming the worst, without looking she struck out and back-handed the man across the face. However before she could do any more damage her raised arm was caught and someone shouted at her,

"Artemis, what the hell are you doing?" She recognised the woman's voice, and her free hand automatically flew to her mouth in dismay as she slowly turned to look.

"Uh…hey Trin," she stammered, trying to sound casual. Morpheus straightened, still reeling from the powerful blow she had dealt him, massaging his stinging cheek with his fingertips.

"Oh shit, Morpheus, I'm so sorry…oh god…"

He cleared his throat and raised his eyebrows. "Well it's reassuring to see you on guard." Hannah blushed deeply and became very interested in the floor panelling.

"At least you're looking alright," said Trinity, trying to change the subject. "They haven't hurt you, have they?"

"No, no – not yet, anyway. We've been being chased by these two guys for ages, but it's OK now. I've lost mine, I threw him off my trail a while ago, and Sarah's just been saved by the bell if I'm reading her mind straight."

"You mean she's here?" Asked Morpheus, surprised and more than a little confused.

"Yeh…didn't you know? Whatever tracing thing you used to find me should have shown her too…that's weird…"

"It did, but I came here not very long ago and overheard the Merovingian saying that she wasn't here. I also heard him mentioning the Virus Twins, that's why I didn't stay, and went back for Trinity."

"The Virus Twins? Is that what they're called? No wonder. They're impossible, they can do practically anything!"

"Sounds like it's a good thing we came," commented Trinity. Hannah nodded.

"So where is Apollo now?"

OoOoO

I shut my eyes and braced myself for the worst as my silent attacker closed in on me. But just as I could sense him about to do something, the door opened and I heard someone shuffle in. I dared to open half an eye, and saw that, for some reason, the man in white had resumed his solid form and was looking to his right. I followed his eyes and saw a small Chinese man standing nervously by the door. He wore a brown leather jacket and had several bunches of keys hooked onto his belt. The silver man was looking at him in a distinctly annoyed way. He turned back to me and hissed,

"I'll deal with you later." Then he turned back into a ghost and sank through the floor. Intrigued as to who could have caused him to give up, I glanced at the newcomer and he stepped closer. I looked him up and down.

"Who are you?"

"I'm the Keymaker. Who are you?"

I was about to say 'Sarah Anderson', but paused as I remembered Morpheus' words from way back on the Neb.

"_The name Thomas Anderson represented his identity within the Matrix. In letting go of that identity he let go of the Matrix. Sooner or later, you're going to have to choose. Are you Sarah Anderson? Or are you Apollo?"_

It was the first time I had been asked my name since having my mind freed, and decided to use it as an opportunity to make the decision. I raised my chin and looked him in the eye. "Apollo."

His face brightened. "Ah! Apollo! I've been waiting for you."

"You have?"

"Yes. I have something for you. But you have to keep it a secret from the Merovingian."

"Hang on, so…you're not on his side?"

He smiled. "I'm under his command, but not his influence. I think we are in the same boat." I nodded and mirrored his smile. I was beginning to like this strange little Chinese guy.

"So what'cha got for me?"

"I'll show you." I started to follow him out of the room when Hannah struck up a conversation. I had been alerted when she encountered Morpheus and Trinity only seconds earlier, but hid it, as I was unsure how far I could trust the Keymaker.

_Are you coming Sarah? Morpheus and Trinity want to get out of here as soon as possible. _

_I know, but I've just met this guy called the Keymaker and I think he may have something useful to show me…ask Morpheus if he'll wait, will you?_

_He won't be pleased, but OK…_

There was a brief pause before she continued: _He says we'll wait, but not for long. I think they know who the Keymaker is and Morpheus says you could be right about him being useful. Just hurry up!_

_Okay, okay, I'm hurrying! How long will you wait?_

_5 minutes, then we'll go back to the ship. We can't follow you 'cuz Morpheus wants to stay near the exit. But now they know where you are they can link up your mobile so give us a call when you need to get out._

_Right. Will do._

I was being led downwards, which was the direction I had been aiming for originally to find a way out, but the Keymaker took me much further than I expected. Soon we were right down in the cellars, ending up in a long arched stone corridor. It was very cold and damp, with droplets of water dripping from the ceiling here and there. It smelt musty and the air was thick; our footsteps made small splashing noises as we picked our way through the light covering of water on the floor.

The room into which he showed me was obviously his workshop. Behind the iron door, the tiny room was made claustrophobic by what had to be several thousands of keys hanging on the walls from floor to ceiling. In the centre was a small table with a machine on it, presumably for cutting, and a bucket stood nearby with discarded metal shavings in it.

As I looked around in awe he rubbed his hands together and began to count the hooks to find the one with the key he wanted. There were several keys on each hook, and the one he pulled out for me had been at the back. He smiled knowingly and mischievously as he held it up to the light. It looked like an ordinary key to me, albeit very new and shiny.

"What's it for?"

He was about to answer when we heard voices and footfall at the other end of the corridor. He jumped and thrust it into my hand, closing my fingers firmly around it.

"It will fit into any door. Use it as soon as you can, and remember to shut the door behind you. Don't tell /anyone/ I gave you this."

"Um, ok…where do I go?"

"Away, now! Go! Don't let them catch you!"

He pushed me out of the door into the corridor, then shut himself in. I heard the machine start up. I could see figures starting to approach down the corridors; among the voices I recognised the Merovingian.

_Oh shit._

As I stood debating what to do, I saw an arm raised and someone pointed at me. They began to run, and so did I. I looked around for a door, but there were none except to the Keymaker's workshop. Luckily I found a stairway at the end of the corridor, but I had already done so much running that day my legs were reluctant to take me up them quickly. I heard the voices getting louder and, panicking, jumped the last two steps to find myself in a small hallway with 3 doors. I plunged the key into the nearest lock and went through, remembering to shut the door behind me. Trying to understand the significance of the key, I assumed it was just an easy way for me to escape pursuers. How wrong I was.

I looked around and registered how dazzlingly bright the room was. The floor, walls and ceiling were all glowing with white light, and in the middle, a few feet away from me, was a single black chair. It took me several minutes to recognise the person sitting in it. The key dropped to the floor as my hand went limp and I stumbled across.

_This can't be real. Can it?_

I put my hand on his shoulder and said softly,

"Tom?"


	15. Showdown

Hello everyone, I'd just like to apologise quickly for Chapter 11 – the Merovingian said something to Sarah that implied she has straight hair, and Hannah has the dreads – this was my mistake, it's the other way round. I've been back and changed it, sorry for any confusion that may have caused! Oh and thanks for the review Scott, it's always nice to get new readers )

Hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it's been put up a day early as a birthday present for Delisa. I had so much fun writing this…

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 15: Showdown

I had given up trying to wake Tom; if he was asleep it was no natural occurrence and I dreaded to think what had made him unconscious. Instead I had decided to get him out myself. Hannah had said my phone was going to be connected, so my plan was to get him as far as the hallway outside, then call the Neb and get the others to help me carry him to an exit.

But I hadn't realised how heavy a grown man can be; I was barely willing to admit that my brother /was/ a grown man. I stumbled across the floor, my hands latched under his arms, edging backwards towards the door. When I managed to reach it I stood for a moment to catch my breath, hands on hips with a satisfied smile playing on my lips. When my breathing had steadied I pulled on the door and propped it open with one foot, balancing on the other while I picked up Tom again and began taking very small and awkward steps, still moving backwards, trying extra hard not to fall over or let the door shut on me.

I took my fourth step and stopped. I had just hit a wall. No, a door. No, wait, I was holding the door open, wasn't I? I looked over my shoulder; there was nothing there.

_What…?_

I tried again, but was prevented by the sensation of backing into something solid. I put Tom down, turned around and tried going through it forward, making a point of taking a large step over the threshold. Confused, I found myself standing in the corridor. _There's nothing there. What was stopping me? _I looked back into the room, having to catch the door as it started to shut itself. Seeing nothing, I went back in, picked up Tom, and tried going through again. I couldn't.

_What the hell is going on?_

Deciding maybe it was to do with which way I was facing when I went through, I tried putting him down and going through it backwards, which worked. _So it's not connected with whether I'm facing forward or backward. What is it then?_ I tried pushing Tom through first, but only pushed him into the invisible barrier with a thud. I stamped in frustration. _Right, I get it. I can get out but he can't. And I can't if I'm touching him. Fantastic. There must be a way round this…._

I decided to call Morpheus; if anyone knew how to solve a crisis it would be him. I picked up the key and stepped outside of the door. The Merovingian had gone but I kept my voice down in case they were still close, not wanting to be caught when I was so close to getting my brother back.

Finding my phone in my pocket, I flipped it open and was reassured by the screen lighting up. I hit the short key button to call the Neb; Link answered almost immediately.

"Operator."

"Hey Link, it's me."

OoOoO

"Let me talk to her," said Morpheus, reaching out for the headset, which Link obediently handed over. "Apollo?...Yes, this is Morpheus. It's been longer than 5 minutes so we came back…Yes…What did the Keymaker give you?…I thought so…Where are you now? We've been watching you appearing and disappearing from the code, that isn't safe and I want you to move away from wherever you are…Who?..." He looked slowly at Link. "That's impossible…are you sure?... In that case I want you to stay out of that room, you may become trapped yourself…I'm sorry Apollo but we can't bring him out if the computers don't recognise his code…I know, but if that was possible we could have recovered him a long time ago…it may not even be him, it may be a duplicate…"

"Sir?" Link whispered, trying to get Morpheus' attention. He touched his arm. "Sir, I think you oughta see this." He pointed to a low screen, showing a new message. It was from another Egyptian hacker.

'Time is running out and I am impatient. The key to freeing Neo is now the Sphinx of Giza. I leave it to you to be prompt. Meet me in Artemis' fortress.

Khentekhtay'

Morpheus closed his eyes in despair. "Apollo, I'm sending Artemis in to help you get to a safe exit. We've just received a message telling us we don't have much time so I need you to do as I say. Wait where you are for Artemis, then I want both of you out as soon as possible, do you understand me?" He handed the headset back to Link, then motioned to Hannah to get ready to jack in. "You're the only person who can convince her to leave, please do this for me."

She nodded and lowered herself into a chair. "Yes, sir."

OoOoO

_Sarah?_

_Hannah, you're here! You'll never believe what just happened!_

_Look, I'm coming for you now, we /have/ to leave, the Egyptian people say they're getting impatient and we don't want to anger the people who have control of our brother._

_No, but that's the thing Hannah, I just found him!_

There was a pause and I sensed Hannah stop running.

_You what? Morpheus didn't tell me that…_

_The Keymaker gave me the key to this random room and Tom was inside! I couldn't get him out though…it's really weird there's some kind of invisible door or something that stops him from getting out but I can get through it OK._

_Ooh, that's what Morpheus was talking about…yeh, you disappear from the code whenever you go in there, he was freaking out!_

She started moving again and soon appeared through the door in front of me. She hugged me quickly and I saw her eyes go to the door behind me as she pulled back. I flipped the key into the air and she caught it, eyeing it incredulously and with undisguised curiosity. She looked again at the door, then shook herself.

"No, no – we have to go now," she said; and it was so unusual for her to talk aloud to me I knew she was being firm with herself as well as with me. I nodded reluctantly and we tore ourselves away. The exit Link had arranged was very close, for which I was thankful – the sooner I was out of that god-forsaken place the easier it would be to resist going back and trying to get Tom out again. My legs hurt from the amount of running I had done and the bursts of adrenaline, and my mind hurt from trying to comprehend everything that had happened to me and to Hannah.

_Here it is,_ Hannah thought, as we rounded a corner and spied an old-fashioned telephone sitting on a side table in a room across the way. We tip-toed in, glanced around to make sure it was safe, and stood next to the phone. _It'll start ringing soon,_ she thought confidently. We waited a few seconds and nothing happened. She looked at it expectantly, raising her eyebrows as if asking it when it was going to ring.

I looked around the room, which had turned out to be a lounge, more carefully. It was spacious and well-lit by tall windows that stretched nearly all the way up to the ceiling, which itself must have been several feet above the average height. The side table on which the phone was resting was at the end of a crimson chaise-longe, facing it was a deep sofa in a matching shade, with a low glass coffee table in between. In front of one of the windows was a pair of armchairs overlooking the view outside. The walls were lined with various bookshelves, cabinets and display cases and I noticed that, like all the other rooms we had come across, it had two doors.

Hannah crossed her arms over her chest and began to tap one foot as she stared at the phone. _Any minute now…_ I sighed impatiently and picked it up to listen for a tone and make sure it was connected. There was at least a dial-tone, suggesting it was ready for outward calls, and hopefully inward ones as well.

_Are you sure this is where you came in?_

_No, I came in a different way, then Link disconnected it – he didn't want to leave any phone as an exit for too long in case the wrong person managed to use it. But the directions he gave were pretty clear, I'm sure we're in the right place._

But no sooner had she finished speaking than we heard a noise coming from the room above us. _Oh no…_ It was a phone, ringing. _Hannah you fool…_

"Lost, are we?"

I looked at Hannah. Hannah looked at me. Neither of us had said it.

"You should listen to directions more carefully."

We spun round and froze. Sitting on the sofa were two all-too-familiar twins, smiling with more menace than they ever had before. Without warning, they leapt up, and before I had time to realise what was happening I had been kicked in the stomach. I stumbled backwards and looked up, only to see one of them towering in front of me.

He swung out with his fist and I just managed to block it, straightening and pushing the pain in my stomach to the back of my mind as I prepared for a fight. He tried again with the other hand and I ducked, dodging behind him and striking out at his ribs as I went. He whirled round and I managed a spin-kick to his head before he began to rain blows down on me from all directions. I was reminded uncannily of the Sparring Programme as my arms began to move faster and faster to avoid being hit again. I tried a floor-sweep but when I came up he wasn't there; I realised too late that he must have phased as I felt a hand clamp over my mouth. Reaching back I grabbed a fistful of his coat and flipped him over my head, then made a run for the nearest door, but it had taken a lot of exertion to flip him and I was slow. He caught up with me and just as I was losing all hope, I remembered what I had been taught.

I smiled at him as he reached out, before jumping 8 feet into the air, somersaulting straight over his head. I began to feel slightly smug, but I hadn't practiced this feat and I landed on the sofa. The cushions swallowed my feet and I lost all sense of balance, my arms flailing briefly before I tumbled to the floor, landing hard on my back. He appeared above me and I rolled under the coffee table for protection, but he smashed the top with one powerful kick and shards of glass cascaded down on me. I scrambled out from beneath the frame and vaulted over the back of the chaise-longe, flattening myself against it quickly. He followed me over but landed in front of me. In the few seconds he took to pause and look around for where I had gone, I reached out and pulled his ankles, causing him to fall flat and disorientating him momentarily. I used the opportunity to check how badly I had been hurt by the glass; fortunately I had no pieces stuck in me, but my left arm was bleeding profusely and my face felt damp with blood.

I brushed away the tiniest fragments that had settled on my netting top and looked up, only to find that he had vanished. _Oh, not again…_ I staggered upright but couldn't see him anywhere. Hannah and her attacker had both disappeared into another room, but she seemed to be handling things OK so decided to deal with my arm before anything else. On the chaise-longe was a cushion with a removable cover; I took the material off and proceeded to tear a strip, having no respect for other people's property, and did my best to tie it round my arm. The gash didn't look very deep and I wasn't too worried.

However I was tired, and I managed to get over to one of the arm chairs by the window. I didn't want to sit down for fear I couldn't get up again so instead I stood behind it and took hold of the back for support. I shut my eyes and breathed deeply, wiping the blood off my face with the back of my sleeve. When I looked out of the window I could see it was starting to get dark outside, and though I hadn't realised there were any lights on in the room I could see them starting to be reflected in the pane. I knew time was running out; we were supposed to be going straight back to the Neb and then dealing with getting Tom back as soon as possible. _This is so typical._ Just as I was thinking what a mess we were in, I felt something painful on my wrist.

I looked down and had half a second to register that a white hand had appeared from the front of the depths of the chair; with a gasp my head snapped up and I saw in the window the reflection of the twin sitting comfortably, one arm stretched up, his hand clamped firmly around my wrist. _Shit._

Without giving me any more time for thought, he yanked hard and I was taken over the chair and slammed onto the floor at his feet. I opened my eyes and tried to sit up, but his foot was resting on my neck. I lowered myself back down slowly, keeping my eyes on him. He wasn't even looking at me – he was staring absent-mindedly out of the window, as if nothing was happening. I gently put my hands on his foot and tried to lift it ever-so-slightly, but he registered the tiny movement and pressed down harder. I choked as he almost completely blocked my airway and began rasping for air.

He looked down apparently for the first time, before suddenly removing his foot and instead taking a handful of my dreads and pulling me sharply upwards into a sitting position. He somehow managed to take both my wrists in his other hand and whispered hoarsely into my ear,

"Now, are you going to come quietly or do I need to be firmer?"

I paused as if considering what to do, making him think my pride was stopping me from admitting defeat. I could sense him beginning to smile in victory. _I'll soon wipe that smile off your face…_

Angered, I jerked my hands up, taking his arm with them, and sank my teeth into his hand. He hissed in irritation but he did let go of me, and I jumped up. Now my concern was getting back to Hannah, who was getting worn out quickly by making good use of the most highly recommended move in any kung fu repertoire: run like hell.

Despite the pain and the fatigue, I sprinted out of the door and into the corridor, following my instincts to get me back to my twin. She was moving fast but knew I was coming and started to divert towards me. I gave up trying to mislead the Virus Twin behind me, it was useless if I was going to get to Hannah fast enough.

Ironically, we ended up meeting in the marbled entrance hall where we had split up to avoid the Virus Twins before. We appeared through the two doors at the top of the staircase, and the quickest way out was through the colossal front doors. We leapt down the stairs two at a time and both took hold of one the enormous rings, deciding that even one door would need both our strengths put together to open. We counted to three and pulled as hard as we could, but nothing happened.

The Virus Twins appeared at the top of the stairs and started to make their way down. and we pulled harder as we panicked before I noticed a tiny key hole underneath the handle. In desperation I whipped the key the Keymaker had given me from my pocket and thrust it into the lock, flicking my wrist to turn it. We heard something click and with only milliseconds to spare, the door came open.

We flew through and slammed it behind us. I shut my eyes in preparation for the blinding white light I remembered from last time I had been in the room, but Hannah nudged me. _What have you got your eyes shut for?_

I opened them and looked around. We weren't in the same room as before at all. No white walls, no searing light, and no Tom. We were in an underground car park, with rows of gleaming cars sitting silently in the gloom. _This isn't right, this isn't where this key leads! _I thought, bewildered.

_Well apparently it is._ Hannah looked at me with raised eyebrows. We could see a large exit on the other side of the floor, but it was at least a hundred metres away. We slowly started to make our way over to it, when we heard the unmistakable sound of an engine. Looking to our right, we saw that that side of the car park was in face a row of arches leading through into another section. There was a black Cadillac approaching fast, and as it came through on of the arches towards us we saw who was driving it.

_Oh for Christ's sake, can we ever escape these guys?_

Their engine revved and we jumped, knowing we didn't have a hope in Hell of running away now. We looked at the small red sports car nearest us, then at each other, then back at the car, before simultaneously leaping for it. It was unlocked and we jumped inside; I found myself on the driver's side and felt my heart rate increase substantially. Spurred on by the sound of the Cadillac coming closer, I looked for a way to start up the car without a key.

_We haven't got time to fiddle with the wiring, what are we gonna do?_

_The key! The one the Keymaker gave you, try that!_

I didn't believe it would work, but was willing to try anything and again took out the key. Despite my misgivings, it fitted perfectly into the ignition and the engine started smoothly. I smiled and flexed my fingers before closing them around the gear stick. _Let's go._

We shot backwards and I caught myself just in time to steer us out of the row of cars without reversing into something. By the time we were in the main pathway to the exit, the Virus Twins had caught up with us and were hot on our heels. A gun strafed loudly and I stamped on the acceleration as the back of the car became riddled with bullets.

_They're not trying to kill us, they're just trying to scare us,_ thought Hannah, trying to comfort both of us.

_It's all very well to say that,_ I thought_, but I'd rather not risk anything thank you very much!_

We raced out of the car park and into an area of outside parking space underneath a concrete roof that was presumably more indoor levels. It was clearly disused, and we were thrown from side to side as my crazy steering took us around piles of rubble and sections of barbed wire. I could see we were heading towards an open road with cars streaking past; it was the last thing I needed but the Cadillac was still behind us and Hannah had to grab the dashboard as I sped forward, skidding unceremoniously onto the road and nearly colliding with a passing van.

_Please don't kill me, Sarah, I've put so much effort into not being slaughtered by the Virus Twins it would be a shame to die now._

_Shut up._

I was hideously over the speed limit as I wove in between the cars and lorries, the Cadillac following suit. There was soon a convoy of police cars on our heels too, which induced a lot of swearing from Hannah when she spotted them in the wing-mirror.

Just as we were starting to put a safe distance between ourselves and the Virus Twins, I noticed a strange smell.

_What is that?_

Hannah looked back. _Oh shit, Sarah pull over._

_What? I can't! _

_There's smoke coming from the back of the car…_

_Bollocks._

I swerved onto to a side-road, leaving a series of horns honking and fists being shaken out of windows at me, and jerked to a stop. I got out and saw that, just as Hannah had said, the trunk was belting smoke. I collapsed onto the road.

_We're dead. There's now way to escape them now. I'm too tired to run any more._

_I wouldn't be so sure about that,_ said Hannah. I snorted indignantly, knowing that my pessimistic outlook was actually realistic.

I heard another car pull up behind me and shut my eyes, not being able to look. Footsteps approached and I felt a hand on my shoulder. I didn't even have the energy or resilience to knock it away.

"I'm glad we found you, Apollo."

Wait, that wasn't one of the Twins' voices, that was-

"Morpheus!"


	16. The Matrix: Recoded

Hello everybody, sorry this is a bit late - I am amazed I managed to write anything at all as I've been doing GCSE exams everyday this week and my brain is about to implode. Please review, I like to know what you think :) and thanks for all the reviews so far

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 16: The Matrix Recoded

A faint noise began to pull me into consciousness. My mind struggled to find my body until I felt a gentle hand on my arm, reminding me where to direct myself as I returned to solid form from floating in an endless dream world. From afar, a hazy voice spoke, but I couldn't make out the words. I moved my lips but wasn't sure what I was trying to say. Finally, I managed to find my eyes and half-open them.

The world was blurred and I couldn't make sense of anything. The voice was becoming clearer and I recognised it, although I couldn't quite remember whom it belonged to. My mind floundered as I tried to sort everything out, the world seeming impossibly complicated.

"Apollo? Apollo?" A bell rang somewhere at the back of my head. Oooh yes – that was my name, wasn't it?

I smiled and rubbed my eyes. Things looked a little clearer and I began to remember who I was and where I was, although what was happening was still beyond me.

"Hello Morpheus," I mumbled, feeling incapable of saying anything more sophisticated. He smiled at me reassuringly.

"How are you feeling?" He asked, setting down a cup on the bedside table. I paused, not sure how to describe it properly with my vocabulary so limited by tiredness. Hannah was the one who did the talking, not me.

"Like I've been asleep for a very, very long time," I said. He laughed softly and replied,

"That's because you have. I was wondering when you'd ever wake up."

"How long?"

"About 26 hours, I'd say. When we got back from the highway you and Artemis went straight to bed and you've been here ever since." My social conscience was telling me I ought to feel embarrassed, but the rest of my mind was advising me not to bother. I pushed myself slowly into a sitting position and looked around. Across the small capsule room, Hannah was starting to show signs of life. Morpheus followed my gaze then turned back to me.

"When you two are ready, come up onto the main deck. There's a lot we need to tell you."

OoOoO

I sat hunched on my chair, staring blankly ahead and spooning grey gloop into my mouth, my jaw moving in a continuous circular motion like a bored cow grazing absent-mindedly. Next to me, Hannah was a perfect reflection. Trinity stopped as she came in and laughed.

"I thought you were supposed to be awake," she teased. We glanced at her from beneath identically raised eyebrows. She just shook her head and sat down by the monitors, leaving the centre seat for Morpheus, who entered just as she had lowered herself into the chair. He looked grim and my concern woke me up properly. I set my bowl and spoon aside and sat up straight, trying to prepare myself for what on earth he could be about to throw at me. Knowing that he wasn't keen on awkward silences, I wasn't taken aback when he plunged straight in.

"While you were asleep we did some research and made some…rather interesting discoveries regarding the Egyptian hackers."

"Really? What did you find out?" Asked Hannah.

"Well we know the link between their names. Haroeris, Harsiesis, Re-Harakhti, Harendotes and Khentekhtay are all different forms of the god Horus. Why Horus, we don't know, but according to our research he was the earliest Egyptian god. Does that mean anything to you?"

Hannah and I shook our heads apologetically.

"We've heard of Horus, but we don't really know anything about him."

"And we can also shed some light on the message you received at school from Harsiesis. Remember, where he told you that it was important to return home before setting out on a journey, and that Romulus and Remus must return to Chiron before they could become Gemini?"

"Oh, that one!"

"Yes. Romulus and Remus are twins – the Roman names for the two stars that form the Gemini constellation. According to Roman mythology, Chiron raised them. Of course the Greeks gave them different names and origins, but they've been ignored."

"But that doesn't explain why we were being told to go home," Hannah pointed out.

"No, it doesn't. We're guessing it's some kind of suggestion that you need to in order to reach your full potential…some reference to Romulus and Remus not being a complete constellation without Chiron…but it's so dubious."

"Dammit! And what about the most recent one?"

"From Khentekhtay? We're pretty sure that when he mentions the Sphinx of Giza, he is referring to the fact that Harmakhis represents Horus on the horizon, in which the Sphinx of Giza is his aspect. We deduced from that the implication that the hackers are 'on the horizon', in other words, imminent."

"You mean they're getting closer? Like, they're gonna come and get us or something?"

"We're not entirely sure. But yes, something along those lines."

"Shit."

"Quite. And he wants to meet us in London. "Artemis' fortress" – Artemis was the Greek goddess of, among other things, the moon. And if you were to look up the meaning of the name 'London', the definition given would be 'fortress of the moon'."

We sighed identical sighs as everything fell into place.

"Of course. It all makes sense now." What had seemed like an endless stream of random information began to piece together, and give us a better view of the situation.

"But this all means that we have very little time. Now that we have interpreted the messages, we need to act upon them as soon as possible."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"What are we gonna do?" Asked Link, speaking for the first time. I hadn't even noticed he was there.

"First we need to decide what do about the message Harsiesis sent to the twins. If they are going to go 'home' we need to decide where that is and whether it's safe and useful for them to go there before we all go to London."

There was a long silence.

"We wouldn't mind going," ventured Hannah. "We could go to Salisbury and see what happens. Who knows, we might find out something useful. The implication that we would benefit was pretty clear, after all."

"Yes, that much is true," agreed Morpheus. He sighed deeply. "Well if you're confident about it, I'm willing to help. Link can keep watch on the code and Trinity and I can be on stand-by to jack in if you need us. I have a feeling it might be best for you to enter alone, something tells me uninvited guests would be unappreciated."

"Sure, yeh. Okay, so when shall we go? We want to get this over and done with as soon as possible, don't we?"

"Yes we do," Trinity suddenly said. She had been so far silent, but I knew she was becoming unbearably impatient to see Neo again. We smiled at her in the most comforting way we could manage, and Hannah added,

"Then we'll go right now."

OoOoO

It was too quiet. Our footsteps echoed noisily around the alley, reflected off the tall industrial-period buildings that closed us in.

_How are they gonna know we're here at all?_ Hannah thought, still worried that without communication, they would never meet us, and the expedition would just prove to be a waste of time. There was a swift noise behind us; we jumped round and whipped our guns out, our eyes wildly scouring the passage for who was following us. But it was just a cat. We breathed and slipped the guns back inside our voluminous coats, feeling slightly shocked at ourselves for being so ready to use them.

_Don't worry, Han. If they're that desperate and they've been watching us so closely, they'll know we're here._ As if to confirm my statement, a door in the side of one of the buildings opened without warning a few metres ahead of us. We stopped and looked at each other. _Shall we?_ _This /is/ what we're here for, after all._ But I had to admit, I was apprehensive. I was nervous about meeting these hackers, who had been so elusive for so long. It made us wonder what they were trying to hide.

We stepped forward purposefully, reaching the door to find it led into a very dark space. We couldn't see who had opened the door; it might as well have opened itself. Sensing Hannah's tension, I decided to be the first one in, and tentatively put one foot over the threshold. Nothing grabbed it and no one tried to trip me up so I stepped all the way inside. Hannah followed, sticking close to me, and we tried to make out the room we were in. There was no light on, but the daylight drawn in through the door showed a bare, dusty floor and no furniture to speak of. As we peered into the gloom, the door behind us slammed shut and we were plunged into complete darkness.

Hannah and I clung to each other like a pair of frightened children scared of the dark. But this was real. Somehow, we knew there actually was something evil lurking in the blackness, waiting to strike.

OoOoO

"How are they doing, Link?" Asked Morpheus, standing next to a plug-in chair, just waiting for something to go horribly wrong.

"Fine," came the reply, "they've just gone into a building but it looks safe. There are some people in there but they're in a different room, so…"

"Nothing dangerous?"

"No. Not that I can see, any way. And I can see a lot." They grinned at each other, Morpheus amused that Link still had his sense of humour even at times like these. Trinity was standing next to the desk, re-reading the information on Horus over and over again. It was clear from her face that she was thinking hard. Link looked up at her.

"Found anything new?"

She shook her head, "Not yet. But there's something not right…something I know I haven't noticed yet…I just can't figure out what it is!" She sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "It's so frustrating."

There was a pause while Link turned back to the code, and Morpheus withdrew to his own thoughts while Trinity continued to puzzle over the information. Suddenly she gasped.

"I've got it!"

"What? What is it?" Morpheus strode over and stood before her expectantly.

"Oh God…Horus – he's got the Sun and Moon as eyes…"

"And?"

"And, think about it! Apollo and Artemis, the Greek goddesses of the sun and the moon!"

Link looked confused. "I don't get it – he's got the twins as eyes?"

"No, they're what he wants, what he's focused on, and I'll bet he's gonna use them for something - they're not just random people who he wants to meet. And oh shit – asking them to go to Salisbury /on their own/ must be an attempt to get them without us to protect them! Morpheus, we gotta go, it's a trap!"


	17. The Matrix: Revelations

Hellooo everybody! Thanks for reviews, they really are appreciated ).

Eyes of Sky, it's great to have a new reader, and thanks for leaving the questions in your review! I've tried to answer one in this chapter but if you're still not convinced then I'll explain again, and the answer to the second will be in Chapter 18. Hope it makes things a bit clearer!

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 17: The Matrix - Revelations

It wasn't cold, but we began to shiver as we stood in the dark. Without sight, our hearing had become sharpened, and we became aware of voices nearby. They were getting closer slowly, giving us a chance to brace ourselves for whatever might come next. Morpheus had prepared us for traps in the sparring programme what seemed like years ago on the Nebuchadnezzar; in fact it was during one of these training sessions that Hannah had disappeared. We began to run over in our heads everything we could remember having been told, and – more importantly – began to loosen up in case any rule-bending was required.

The still muffled voices stopped a few metres away from us, and the sound of a handle turning pierced the darkness. This was it.

OoO

Morpheus and Trinity sprinted through the streets, trying to dodge passers-by but knowing they were drawing attention. It was probably the most dangerous thing they could do, but if going straight through the town centre meant they reached the twins faster, it was a risk they were prepared to take. Morpheus cursed himself for not foreseeing this dilemma, and silently prayed to anyone who was listening that it still helped them get Neo back. As they turned into the maze of alleyways he snatched the phone from his pocket and hit the key to call Link, who had answered before he had even put the phone to his ear.

"Have you managed to contact them?"

"No sir, I keep calling them but they're not answering."

"Keep trying. And have a ground plan of that building on stand-by."

OoO

As the door began to open, I could feel my phone vibrating in my pocket. I had turned off the ring tone in case stealth became necessary, and for that reason I didn't want to answer it. Realising my intention to leave it, Hannah snapped her head to look at me.

_Are you insane, answer it! What if they've found out something we need to know? They wouldn't call us for any other reason!_

_It's too late for that now! Look, if these guys are gonna try something violent, then it's too risky. We want to use this darkness to hide in - these phones are so leaky they'd be able to hear Link talking and it would show them exactly where we're stood. And if they attack me I'll need both hands!_

_Sarah, if they're planning something violent then maybe that's what Link has just found out and that's why he's calling us, in which case we need to find out and then run for it!_

The door began to open and a strip of light appeared; the voices had stopped and so had my heart. It was no longer a case of wanting or not wanting to answer the phone; I found myself paralysed with sudden fear. In a burst of frustration, Hannah reached over, dipped her hand into my pocket and pulled the phone out. I registered shock but was unable to do anything to stop her. She clicked it open and was raising it to her ear when suddenly a hand appeared from behind her and snatched it from her fingers.

I was jolted back to my senses and we both jumped round, having thought ourselves alone. We could hear Link's fuzzy voice on the other end,

"Listen, Apollo, you gotta get outa there, it's a tra- oh my god…"

I shut my eyes as I knew he had seen the phone being taken. We heard it clatter to the floor and as the door opened fully the light revealed a man standing there. He grinned wickedly at us.

Someone began to laugh behind us and we turned back to face the door again, Hannah's hand finding mine and gripping it tightly.

_We're surrounded…_

A figure was standing in the doorway, but the light from behind him was so blinding we couldn't make out his face. From what we could see, he was wearing white, and his stance suggested strong confidence and authority.

"Wh…who are you?" Hannah stammered. He laughed.

"I am Haroeris."

He took a step forward and we could begin to see his face, and although it was still unclear we could see him smiling. In her own coat pocket, Hannah's phone began to vibrate in its turn, but she did nothing. It would only be snatched away too. The man standing behind us began laughing as he heard the minute buzzing noise it made and as we looked over at him only laughed louder, and shook his head.

"You're operator can't save you now."

"No, but we can!"

Hannah and I spun round as we recognised Morpheus' voice, but before I could see what was going on, someone grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me forward. I tried to shake myself free but when she ordered me to 'Come on, Apollo!', I realised it was Trinity dragging me away. Relieved that it wasn't an attacker but confused as to what on earth was happening, I stumbled after her, being pulled faster than I could run. Morpheus flung open a door that had been hidden by the darkness, and once we were all through slammed it shut and pulled a bolt across the handle. I couldn't believe it.

"Morpheus, what are you doing? That was him! That was Haroeris! We nearly saw who he was and you're taking us away?"

But he only grabbed the shoulder of my coat and pushed me over to the window, which Trinity and Hannah were climbing through.

"It was a trap, Apollo, didn't you hear what that man said? Now get out of that window!"

I tumbled through and rolled onto the street, Morpheus leaping out after me and pulling me to my feet before I had recovered my sense of balance. I felt dizzy as we began to run, and the sensation was only exacerbated by the spinning of my head as it tried to figure out what was going on. I felt a fool.

_Hannah was right – I should have answered my phone when it rang…I'm such an idiot!_

Hannah heard me reprimanding myself and slowed 'til she was running beside me.

_Don't worry, Sarah, they're here now, we'll be alright._

_But what was the point of that? Why did they bother asking us to meet them there if they were just gonna try and do what they'll probably do when we meet them in London?_

_I don't know, right now that's not important. What's important is getting to an exit. Come on._

OoO

Back on board the Nebuchadnezzar, the first thing Morpheus did was to sit down next to Link and take the intercom headset from its hook. Trinity quietly explained their discoveries about Horus to Hannah and I as we made our way over to join him.

"Niobe?" Said Morpheus, leaning across and operating the touch-screens to activate maps of London. "It's Morpheus. I need your help."

As he continued talking, Trinity leaned over and whispered,

"Be glad he managed that."

"What?" Asked Hannah, whispering back.

Trinity glanced at Morpheus to see he was busy talking before replying, "I wasn't sure if he'd be able to leave." We looked at her inquisitively and she shook her head sadly. "He wants more than anything to meet those hackers and talk to them, but he had to get you out."

"But we're going to meet them again in London, aren't we? It's not like he'll never see them again and he won't ever get another chance to talk to them."

She raised her eyebrows at me. "And what did you say to him when we first got out of that room?"

I bit my lip as I remembered:I had encouraged him to stay for the exact reason of being able to speak to Haroeris, succumbing to the same temptation. But he had left because he knew that no matter how much he wanted to stay, we were in danger, and he had put aside his own impulses to get us out safely. I hadn't even realised there was anything like that going on; Morpheus has always been one to hide any kind of internal struggle but I felt stupid not to have thought about it.

"He didn't want to send you in on your own in the first place," Trinity continued, "but he didn't want to do anything initially that went against what the hackers wanted. They wanted it to be just you who went, not us, and being so close to getting Neo back he didn't want to endanger him. You should have seen how on edge he was after you left."

Hannah and I looked at each other nervously, only just beginning to realise how complicated the situation really was, and seeing a new strength of character appearing in Morpheus.

He hung up and looked round at the three of us.

"Niobe is on her way, she's coming with us to London."

Trinity, Hannah and I exchanged glances. He really wasn't taking any risks this time.

"How soon will she be here?" asked Hannah.

"Within the hour. As soon as she arrives, we will leave – we don't have an arranged meeting place but they seem to be capable of seeking us out."

However, just as he began to stand up a message appeared on one of the communication screens which solved the problem.

'Be at my statue in the British Museum in an hour. Bring the twins with you. Don't be late.

Horus'

We all shifted uneasily, painfully aware of how important it was that we met them this time, and getting impatient for Niobe to arrive. It was just as well her ship was so close, now that the hackers had actually specified a time for us to meet them. I noticed Trinity's eyes moving to Tom's unconscious form in the corner, and her hand tensed around the arm of the chair. Hannah and I also looked at him, then at each other. If we had to be honest, we never really expected that we would see him again. Even when we saw him lying there on the Neb, and even when I found him in that room in the Chateau, there was still a mist of disbelief clouding everything. After all, we hadn't actually spoken to him yet, or seen him awake, and the months of searching had made us sceptical.

Everything that had happened since that first conversation with Trinity in an ICT lesson at school had been so unbelievable that I think our minds had entered a state where we convinced ourselves we understood and believed what was going on, but really never accepted any of it. But now, on the brink of really seeing our brother again, everything began to filter through the psychological blockade we had built.

_We might be about to see Tom again,_ Hannah thought – and though it was obvious, it seemed like a revelation, as this was the first time we had really grasped the concept. Morpheus, Link and Trinity looked at us in a strange way, not being able to hear Hannah's thoughts as I could, and not understanding why we suddenly started to laugh.

OoO

It was dark in London when we arrived at the British Museum; being a cold November evening most people were at home and we managed to slip in unnoticed. With Morpheus leading and new addition Niobe guarding our rear, we crept up to the Egyptian exhibition. Hannah and I hardly knew who Niobe was, but Morpheus clearly regarded her as deeply trustworthy, and we were willing to accept his judgement. It wasn't like we had any other choice anyway.

There were only two people in the Egyptian section – a lanky foreign student enthusiastically taking notes in Serbo-Croat, and at the other end of the exhibition, a man in a black jacket facing away from us. He was standing beneath the statue of Horus. Morpheus took a steadying breath, cleared his throat, and led the way.

As we approached, he turned to face us, and I noticed a scar on his left temple. There was something odd about his smile that I couldn't place, and his voice was gravelly.

"Good evening, good evening, so nice to see you at last." He looked from Morpheus to Trinity to Niobe, before finally resting his eyes on my twin and I. We gulped under his penetrating gaze and looked at the floor, unable to hold it.

"And who exactly are you?" Asked Morpheus, not returning our host's outward friendliness.

"I am Kenti-Irti," he said, holding out his hand, which Morpheus didn't take. Hannah and I looked at each other knowingly.

_Of course, the only form of Horus we haven't yet come across. That message earlier must have been from all of them, then._

"Are you ready to open negotiations?" Said Niobe, speaking for the first time since we had entered the Matrix. He shot her an annoyed glance.

"Well, if you're so keen, I suppose there's no harm in starting now." The corner of his lip curled menacingly and he gestured the way out. "Shall we?"

He showed us into a staff corridor and as we were walking Morpheus began to ask him questions.

"What is your circle trying to achieve?" Was his first. Kenti-Irti looked at him oddly.

"Circle? What circle?" Then his face lit up, "Ooh, of course! You don't know yet, do you?"

"Know what?"

Kenti-Irti laughed. "It's not a circle at all. I'm just Santa's Little Helper, as it were," here he paused to chuckle at his own joke, "but all the messages you've received have been from the same person."

"What?"

"Yes, that's right, my friend. Oh, he did enjoy leading you on."

"Who is 'he'?"

"Why don't you find out for yourself…?" We were nearing the end of the corridor, where an emergency exit door was beginning to open. A man stepped through it – the same man who had appeared earlier in Salisbury. He was wearing the same white suit, but we could see him properly now. Neither Hannah nor I recognised him at all, but the Morpheus' jaw almost dropped.

"It can't be…" he breathed.

We looked up at him expectantly, waiting for an explanation from someone. We stepped up so we were on each side of Morpheus to get a better look; he put a hand on each of our shoulders to stop us moving any closer.

"Apollo, Artemis," he said, quietly, "this is the Architect."


	18. The Final Decision

Eeep, the penultimate chapter! I hope you can deal with the Architect's dodgy flowery language – I know it's a bit confusing but hey, he's a ponce. If there's anything you don't understand I can still answer it with a quick shout-out at the beginning of Chapter 19, so do not despair! Lol : )

Speaking of which, Chapter 19 will be up before next Sunday, as I'm going on holiday for a week on Saturday. I'm not sure what day it will be, I've got quite a lot happening this week so it just depends when I can find the time! But don't worry, it will be Friday at the latest.

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 18: The Final Decision

"What a pleasure it is to meet you at last," said the Architect, holding out his hand. I looked up at Morpheus for a nod of consent before accepting it, starting to realise the importance of who this man was. We had only heard him being mentioned briefly, and had been told never to expect to meet him. So much for that idea. I looked over at Khenti-Irti while Hannah had her hand shaken in turn; he was standing still as a statue, eyes fixed straight ahead, but a small smile trying to convince his lips it should be let out.

"And the great Morpheus," the Architect continued, turning to face our captain. The two men stood in silence for a few moments, and I couldn't decide if they were weighing each other up or trying to stare each other down. As far as the Architect was concerned, Morpheus was one of his greatest enemies, messing with the system and taking people in and out. Both Hannah and I were amazed by his geniality.

"Now let me guess…Niobe? And Trinity." He kept smiling, but their faces were stony as they stiffly accepted his hand. Their lack of wonder surprised me; meeting the Architect was supposed to be a once-in-a-life-time experience, and they were just standing there, straight-faced and tense.

"You know why we're here," stated Morpheus simply. The Architect looked somewhat put-out and his smile almost faltered, but his expression was quickly restored as he opened a door on our left.

"Of course."

The room into which we were ushered was just a small staff room, with a sink and mirror by the door, a few cupboards dotted here and there and what we presumed was a dining table in the centre. The Architect took a seat at the head of the table, with Khenti-Irti placing himself at his right hand. Morpheus motioned for Hannah and I to sit side-by-side at the opposite end, as far away from the Architect as possible, and he, Trinity and Niobe filled the spaces in between. When we were settled, the Architect leaned back slightly and folded his hands together, giving a relaxed appearance but remaining composed.

"So I see you have found your way here."

"Wasn't hard. We had to," said Niobe.

"Interesting. Of course you are aware that there was no inherent requirement for this meeting to transpire, yet you inadvertently succumbed to the inevitability of your choice."

_This guy talks a lot of bullshit,_ Hannah and I thought simultaneously.

"For your part you prolonged this meeting with your riddles," commented Morpheus. "Why did you use them?" The Architect smiled.

"To conceal my identity, naturally. Did you not believe I was another rebel?"

"We thought you were a whole circle of the bastards," Niobe corrected, raising her eyebrows a little.

"I did not underestimate your knowledge. You know who I am, you know what I can do, and thanks to you humans' astounding predictability I was able to prognosticate your refusal to co-operate if you were aware of my identity."

I didn't believe that we would have steered clear of him if we knew who he was – he would still have had Neo, after all – but coming from the man who was metaphorically married to the Oracle, the ultimate predictor of human behaviour, we had to take his word.

"I did leave you certain indications, admittedly, in selecting my aliases."

"What? No, there were no clues, only that all the different names were forms of the same god, but that didn't tell us who you were," said Trinity, finding her voice.

I looked to the Architect for a reply but saw that Morpheus was shaking his head, eyes shut, as if he had just realised something that had been obvious all along. He looked up at the ceiling and said,

"Horus. The earliest Egyptian god. The creator." Hannah and I exchanged glances.

_I can't believe we didn't realise…it's so obvious now!_

"Yes," said the Architect, "and I was even generous enough to present you with an allusion to who I wanted in exchange for Neo, although you did not require it."

Trinity looked at him oddly. "What are you talking about?"

"I never explicitly told you I wanted the Misses Anderson, you had to infer that yourselves from my messages. But you did, I believe, stumble across the clue I left you."

"No, Morpheus worked it out," Hannah said. "He knew it was us when he read your first message, didn't you Morpheus?" He gave a minute nod, but met Hannah's eyes to show his assent. The Architect sighed.

"Then my effort was in vain. Horus is said to have had the Sun and Moon as eyes; I thought Morpheus with his knowledge of theological mythology would have observed that Artemis and Apollo are the goddesses of the Sun and Moon."

Trinity stirred, "That's what you meant? A hint to who you wanted? We thought you meant…I don't believe this."

"Yes, I understand there was an element of rather unfortunate misinterpretation occurring. The human mind, riddled with faults. A risk I was impelled to take. Although I noted how my other attempts at communication were correctly received. Your appearance in Salisbury was verging on unexpected."

"What was actually with that message?" Asked Hannah, wanting to clear things up once and for all. "Why did you bother asking us to come to Salisbury when you were already gonna ask Morpheus to bring us to you?"

"Because every successful stratagem has what you would call a back-up. To meet you without the interference of your protective shipmates would have been less troublesome. Ergo I sent you the message while you were still in the Matrix with the intention of Morpheus never seeing it. However this attempt transpired to be futile."

_Sneaky, scheming little bastard! Trying to get us on our own without Morpheus to make sure we're okay!_

_So Trinity misinterpreting the Sun and Moon message was a good thing after all._

"But I don't understand," said Trinity.

_Glad I'm not the only one._

She tucked a stray hair behind her ear and continued, "Why did you need us to bring you the twins in the first place? You knew where they were and how to contact them, so why bother with us?"

"Because in creating the Matrix I did not bestow upon myself the ability to "free minds", as this process generates systemic complications which for me are only disadvantageous. Inter-programme transfers, such as when I moved Neo, or when the Merovingian moved Artemis, are possible with adequate competence, but I have not yet developed for myself the ability to remove individuals from the system entirely. Perhaps next time the Matrix is redesigned I will incorporate this capability into its structure."

"Yeh, but why did our minds need to be free? Why couldn't you just stick with contact within the Matrix?"

"Because only once your minds are freed are you completely suitable."

"Suitable for what?"

All eyes turned on the Architect and the room became unbearably silent as we held our breath waiting for the answer. But all he did was smile.

"If you don't tell us what your intentions are, I will not leave the twins with you," said Morpheus.

"If you don't leave the twins with me, you will never see Neo again," the Architect replied curtly. Morpheus seethed.

_This is bullshit. We've found Neo! I've been in the bloody programme - we don't even need the Architect to get him back!_ As if he was reading my thoughts, the Architect turned to me.

"You couldn't bring him out, could you?"

I sat up. "What?"

"When you accidentally entered the programme in which I left Neo, you were unable to take him out, am I right?"

"Um…yes…" I looked nervously at Hannah, who understood and began to talk for me.

"Why was that?"

"When creating the programme, I incorporated Neo's DNA into its configuration to ensure that it recognised him and did now allow him outside its confinements. Indeed it was intended that no other individual would be able to enter the programme, however I suspect Apollo was able to gain entry because her DNA is so essentially similar to Neo's. The programme became confused while trying to interpret her information. This may appear to suggest that the programme is flawed, however it only confirms its ability to recognise identity, and the overriding certainty is that it will not make the mistake of allowing Neo out before I decide to alter it."

"In other words, don't even bother trying to rescue Neo on your own," said Khenti-Irti, shooting me a dark, warning glare. "Only the Architect can re-write the programme to let him go."

I began to see why Morpheus was silently fuming. The Architect was just being too damn cunning.

"But why did the Keymaker have a key to the programme?" Asked Hannah, quickly moving on. "If no-one was supposed to be able to get in anyway, what's the point?"

"Because it is necessary for him to be capable of creating a key leading to any programme, it is his purpose, and without this ability he would have no use. However on this occasion he did not intentionally make a key to the programme in question – the key he made was multipurpose, it could be used to satisfy numerous difficulties."

"But he told Sa- I mean, he told Apollo it would take her to Neo!"

"Did he?" This time all eyes were on me, and I squirmed uncomfortably, only able to nod. "Are you sure?"

I looked away and tried to refresh my memory, although I was certain he had told me that. But my eyes widened as I recalled his words when he gave it to me.

"_It will fit into any door. Use it as soon as you can, and remember to shut it behind you."_

I looked up slowly. The Architect was right, he had said nothing at all about what it was for or where it would lead. He had also instructed me to tell no-one he had given it to me, but I realised that must have just been to stop him getting in trouble with the Merovingian for assisting me. This whole situation was turning out to be one huge entangled web of mistakes and misunderstandings, but I suppose that was only to be expected when humans and machines began interfering with each other.

There was an awkward silence as people tried to take everything in and comprehend all that had been said. Morpheus was the one to break it, with,

"Enough of these questions. What is your proposal regarding Neo and his sisters?"

The Architect cleared his throat and said, "If you leave the twins with me, then upon returning to your ship you will find Neo awake. This is your last chance."

"What do you mean, 'last chance'," asked Hannah nervously. He turned to her with his face solemn.

"If Morpheus takes you with him, I will no longer have a purpose for Neo and I will kill him." We all caught our breath – there had been mentions that we wouldn't see him again, but not that the Architect would actually kill him. He looked at each of us in turn, making his way round the table, and no-one could meet his stare.

"So what is your decision?" He rose and stood behind his chair.

The moment of truth.

Morpheus looked at Hannah and I, and we had to turn away, finding it too unbearable to see the pain in his face. It was utterly unfair to expect Morpheus to choose who should live and die; if he had never met us before it would be difficult, but after serving as our captain it was ridiculous to ask it of him.

"Morpheus," said Hannah quietly. "You don't have to take any guilt. We choose to stay."

Trinity met our eyes and we could see the turmoil in her too; she was so desperate to have her Neo back, but hadn't realised the price we would all have to pay for it. For her, this whole experience had just been one set back after another, and we felt ashamed for not having appreciated how tough it must have been for her.

"Please, just go back to the Neb." Hannah was starting to find it hard to speak. Niobe, having never had anything to do with either me, Hannah or Neo, was the only one of us left to be almost unaffected. Of course we didn't know about it at the time, but her concern was mainly for Morpheus, and she was still able to act – to some extent - as a voice of reason.

"You don't know what might happen to you," she said, turning to my twin and I. She lowered her voice, "He could do anything. And if he won't even tell us what, that is not a good sign." Hannah's voice was barely a whisper when she replied,

"We know." She looked back at Morpheus, before we both stood up and walked over to him, where he also rose and faced us. "Neo's the One, remember? You'll need him for…I dunno, saving the world or something. He's far more important. You've spent your whole life searching for him, now don't go and throw it all away." He looked long and hard at each of us in turn, as if trying to memorise faces he knew he would never see again. It broke my heart.

"Don't worry, Morpheus," I said. "You've been the best captain in the world. We couldn't have asked to be trained by anyone better. Once your gone, if he tries anything, we'll kick his ass." And I grinned. He tried to smile, then suddenly stepped forward and engulfed us in a huge, warm embrace. We were taken aback by such an open sign of affection from someone who was usually incredibly self-contained, and I was moved to add,

"This isn't the end. We'll be back."

The Architect sighed and strolled over.

"So is that your decision? Are the twins staying with me?"

"Yes, we're staying," said Hannah, saving Morpheus the pain of confirming it. _For as little time as possible,_ she finished mentally.

"Then the rest of you can return to your ship and be reunited with Neo," said the Architect.

Niobe and Trinity slowly got up. We hadn't really said good-bye to Trinity properly, but knew that if we tried now it would just make things harder. Instead we turned and each put a hand on her shoulders.

"Go and be with Neo," said Hannah.

"He'll be needing you," I concluded. She smiled and hugged us just as Morpheus had done, but somehow after she had drawn back they still seemed reluctant to leave. The Architect shook his head.

"You humans and your complex emotions."

"Just go," Hannah whispered. They looked at each other, at the Architect, and finally at us, before slowly turning and silently making their way out. Morpheus was at the back, and as he passed the mirror next to the door, I saw that his right cheek glistened with a single tear streak.


	19. The End: Part I

Sniff sniff it's the last chapter…which turned out to be so long I had to split it in two! Sorry about that, I didn't think it would take this much writing to wrap everything up... Thanks to everyone who's been reading and reviewing, you've made writing so much more fun :). Have a cookie, everybody (hands round plate of cookies) hehehe

See first chapter for disclaimer.

Chapter 19: The End

The room was silent. It was just, me, Hannah, the Architect and Khenti-Irti left now. Everyone who made me feel safe was gone: Morpheus had returned to his ship and his duties, Trinity had gone back to Tom, and Niobe was no doubt now on her way to the Logos and her responsibilities as captain. Hannah was the only person whom I could draw any comfort from, and vice versa. We moved closer together as the Architect stepped towards us.

"So, here we are." He looked us up and down and we wondered what he was assessing; presumably how fit we were for whatever purpose he had planned. Suddenly he turned to Khenti-Irti, "You can release Neo now. Delete the prison programme." Hannah and I breathed an internal sigh of relief that it was over for him now, and for all the others who would be there waiting for his return. The only sting left behind was that we wouldn't be among them.

"Artemis, Apollo, won't you follow me?" He made his way over to the door and stood holding it open, his hand gesturing the way through. We were hesitant about accepting, about throwing ourselves into something without any kind of protection. But we knew that there was no choice – and as long as we had each other, somehow everything would be alright. Hannah reached out and took my hand in hers, and with a calming breath we walked in step towards the door.

OoOoO

Trinity felt the plug being slid out from the back of her neck, but was unwilling to open her eyes. She wanted to just lie still for a little longer, not having to think about anything, least of all the events that had just taken place. Even though Morpheus had endorsed it, and so had Apollo and Artemis themselves, she could hardly believe they had just abandoned the twins for the sake of a promise which would probably never be fulfilled anyway. In truth, what reason had they to trust the Architect? How did they know he wouldn't just kill Neo regardless – he was a system anomaly, after all, and what good would it do the Matrix to leave him be?

She felt Morpheus' hand on her arm, and shut her eyes tighter.

"Trin?"

Wait…that wasn't Morpheus' voice…was it? Despite herself, she allowed her eyes to open and looked up not into Morpheus' face, but one that was equally if not more familiar. Neo smiled. Although the ship was alive with the sounds of the engines, the machinery, the humming computers, she could have sworn it all silenced as she looked into his eyes. He squeezed her arm and rested his other hand on the side of her face as she tried to believe what she was seeing. Her mouth was moving but she couldn't make any words come out; she wasn't even sure what she was trying to say.

Morpheus saw Neo bending down to kiss her, and decided to give them a few moments to themselves. He looked at Niobe and they shared a smile as they sat down next to Link, who was grinning like a 5-year-old. He still hadn't gotten over being the first person to see Neo waking up.

"Can you still see the twins?" Morpheus asked.

"Yeh, they're still okay."

"Good." As Neo approached the monitors, Morpheus stood up, and only Niobe noticed that he was almost imperceptibly shaking. "Neo," he said simply.

"Hey, Morpheus." Neo held out a hand for his captain to shake, which was warmly accepted.

"It's good to have you back," Morpheus added with a smile.

"It's good to be back. Not that I really know where I was."

Link looked up in surprise, "You mean the Architect never told you? Why you were there?"

"I guessed why I was there…well, sort of…at first I thought it was something to do with being the One but since I was being ignored I figured it must have been something else."

Link's smile began to fade. The celebration of Neo's return was obviously over, and it was time to get straight back to the problem at hand.

"Did you realise you were a hostage?" Asked Morpheus gravely. Neo nodded. "Do you know what he wanted in exchange for your life?"

"No. Is this something to do with my sisters?"

"How did you know that?" Said Trinity, shocked. He remained silent and looked at the floor.

"Sit down, Neo," said Morpheus, pulling out a chair. "There's a lot we need to tell you."

OoOoO

When we reached the end of the corridor, Khenti-Irti reached inside his sleeve and pulled out a key, which he fitted into the endmost door. When it opened, it was not into another staff-room or a storage facility that you'd expect to find at the back of a museum, but a large warehouse. Hannah and I realised instantly that it must have been the same type of key the Keymaker had given us.

"Won't you wait in here for just a moment?" The Architect requested, smiling. "I have one or two duties to which I must attend, but I will join you presently."

We stepped inside the nearly-empty warehouse, and looked back as Khenti-Irti shut the door. The corners of his lips were curled as he pulled it closed, and we heard a shuffle of keys before the click of one being turned in the lock. Glancing around, we could see the building hadn't been in use for a long time – there were a few piles of wooden crates here and there, but they looked empty, and the floor was covered in dirt and dust. Shreds of material hung limply in the rafters, swaying gently from side to side in a light breeze that had found its way through cracks and gaps in the roof. There was a skylight at the other end of the hall, and light peeping in under the door it illuminated, but other than that it was murky, and our shadows were barely visible in the gloom.

_What do you think he wants us for? _Thought Hannah.

_No idea. Some kind of training maybe? What else would we need this big space for?_

_Guess so. Hey, do you think that door's locked? The one at the other end?_

_Might be. Let's go have a look._

We strode quickly down the length of the floor, scaring a few mice into their holes, and stood hands on hips in front of the main doors. They were much bigger than they had looked from the other end, presumably to allow bulky transport vehicles in and out. Sure enough, a thick chain hung between the two large handles.

_Typical. Just typical._

Suddenly there was a creaking sound behind us, and turning we saw that a smaller side door which we hadn't even noticed before was opening. It's hinges were badly rusted and it shuddered round unsteadily, squeaking and groaning for all it was worth. _Here comes the Architect. Time to find out our fate._ Well, I was half-right.

It /was/ time to discover what was in store for us, but it wasn't the Architect who appeared silhouetted in the doorway. It was a figure in black, what looked like a suit.

_Hang on…is that-_

"Ah, the Misses Anderson."

Hannah looked sidelong at me. _Are you thinking what I'm thinking?_

_I'm your twin, Han, of course I'm thinking what you're thinking. And if we're right, we're totally screwed._

As the figure stepped into the edge of the pool of light created by the skylight, our fears were confirmed.

"What do you want, Smith?" Said Hannah boldly, seeming to put aside everything she knew about what to do when faced with an Agent.

_Um, Hannah dearest, shouldn't we be running?_

_Running to where?_

"I want to do what I've been sent to do," replied Smith, drawing out a gun.

OoOoO

"Did the Architect tell you what he wanted with the twins?" Asked Morpheus. Neo shook his head. "Then how did you know they were connected with this?"

Neo sighed, leaned back in his chair and fingered one of the plugs on his arm. "Just the Oracle…I don't get it."

"Don't get what? What did she tell you?" Trinity pressed, leaning forward in suspense.

"Just that…" He paused. "Just that my sisters would be ready to have their minds freed soon, and that it would 'unlock great potential' or something. I dunno." He looked around the deck mournfully. "I guess I was expecting to see them." Trinity put her hand comfortingly on his, knowing how disappointed he was feeling.

"Wait…" said Niobe slowly. She was supposed to have already returned to the Logos, but had stayed to hear the full explanation of events, as what Morpheus had told her on the intercom was barely sufficient. "They can't be as powerful as you, but doesn't unusual potential mean some kind of disruption to the system balance?"

Trinity looked at her oddly. "What are you talking about?"

"The Matrix is a computer system, right? The One is a problem for the Architect and the machines because he creates some kind of imbalance. I don't pretend to understand it, but if Neo's ability puts the Matrix at risk, what would happen if Apollo and Artemis reached their full potentials?"

"But it can't be that big a problem, can it? I mean, they can handle the One without the Matrix crashing."

"But can they handle three?"

"Don't be ridiculous," said Morpheus, "there can't be more than one."

"No," admitted Niobe, "but the One is never meant to have any siblings. As I said, they'll never match him, but they could pose a threat to the machines."

"But in that case, what would the Architect want with them?" Mused Morpheus. "What do you think, Neo?"

They looked over, but Neo's chair was empty.

OoOoO

I pulled Hannah out of the way as Smith fired, aiming for her head. He emptied his clip into space and as he paused to find a spare, I jumped back up and delivered him the most powerful kick I could muster, pounding the ball of my foot into his neck. He staggered sideways but immediately recovered his posture, this time with a fresh gun pointed at my chest. I froze and held his gaze, amazed that he was pausing, but relieved beyond measure that he was – as I kept him looking at me, Hannah crept up behind him and knocked the gun from his hand. Her other arm she wrapped round his throat and pulled him down, while I grabbed the gun that was spinning across the floor.

Hannah had Smith flat on his back with one foot on his neck and as I ran over with the gun I thought we might be alright. But this was no ordinary person we were fighting. Instead of staying still to protect his neck, he reached out and took hold of Hannah's ankle, giving it a swift tug. Her leg gave way and she crashed to the floor, while he sprung back up and kicked her in the ribs. She cried out as he took hold of her collar and yanked her back up, punching her in the mouth.

"Hannah!" I bounded over, unable to watch this happening, and without looking or thinking, shot Smith in the chest. He let go of Hannah, stepped back, looked down at the wound, and folded to the floor. My hand went limp and the gun clattered down to join him.

_An Agent…I just killed an Agent…_ Hannah stared, wiping blood from her lips, at the body on the floor, as it turned from Smith back into the person whose body he had taken over. My stomach sickened; it was a boy of no more than 12. And I had just killed him.

_Sarah, don't be stupid, you had to shoot, he would have killed both of us!_

_I know, but…_

Suddenly my train of thought was interrupted by a banging sound, as if hundreds of feet were approaching. _What is that noise? _I felt my knees go weak as, through the side door, another Smith appeared. And another. And another. And another.

_What the hell…_

But I had no time to try and work out what was going on, as they were all there to finish off the job the first Smith had come to do. I lost sight of Hannah as I was surrounded by Agents attacking me from all conceivable angles, and I had to rely on my 6th sense to know where she was. I stopped thinking at all, letting my instincts take over, as a normal mind could never work fast enough to process all the reactions I needed to block and retaliate so fast. There were just too many of them.

_So this is it? The Architect wanted to kill us?_

I felt a hand on my shoulder and tried to send a punch behind me, but another Smith caught my arm and twisted it round. I yelped and instinctively bent over to counteract the twist, but even in this miniscule pause they found the opportunity to knock me down. Before I knew what was happening I was on the ground, my face pushed into the floor, and amidst all the chaos I made out a distinct clicking sound, and felt the cold barrel of a gun pressed against the side of my head.

"Inevitability," came a cold voice. "Fascinating, isn't it?"

"Inevitable my arse!" Shouted Hannah, leaping through the crowd and throwing herself onto the Smith holding the gun, knocking him off my back. They rolled a couple of metres, before the surrounding Agents grabbed Hannah and pushed her down next to me. I tried to turn my head and smile, but the Smith whom she had knocked off me had been replaced as soon as he was out of the way, and my head was held firmly down.

_Thanks for trying_.

_I couldn't watch them kill you. But I guess it's over now._

"Thought you could escape the inevitable, didn't you? Not this time." As Smith spoke, I heard someone else approaching, with slow, assured footsteps. I strained to see who it was, and in my peripheral vision could make out the Architect.

"You're a bastard," Hannah wheezed, her lungs slowly being crushed by the weight of the Smith holding her down. "And Smith…you're an exile…a fking exile…you shouldn't be working for him now…"

"He is avoiding deletion," the Architect explained. "I'm allowing him a final task." Before he had even finished, my twin and I both felt the familiar cold metal rim sinking into the skin on our faces…

_We're gonna die._

_Yes._

_Love you, Hannah._

_Love you, Sarah._

We each managed to reach a hand out far enough to intertwine our fingers, then we shut our eyes and Smith fired.


	20. The End: Part II

Chapter 19: The End: Part II

We had heard the shots. But felt nothing. It took a few moments for us to register that something was happening.

The warehouse was filled again with the sounds of fighting, and nervously, we looked up to see all the Smiths crowded together. The Architect was nowhere to be seen. Glancing upwards, Hannah drew my attention to the fact that there were 2 tiny new holes in the ceiling. We smiled.

We stood up shakily and stared at the seething mass of Smiths, every now and then one of them flying out of the cluster, as if being thrown.

_What the hell are they doing?_

The answer came from the very centre of the conglomeration, as a figure dressed entirely in black rose above all the heads, actually /flying/. He landed on the outside of the rabble, and as they turned he briefly paused and looked at us. He looked so different, and his eyes were hidden behind shades, but we still recognised our brother instantly.

"Tom!" We shouted together, and he smiled, before turning away as the Smiths reached him.

We started to run over, wanting to help, but stopped when we heard him shouting to us to stay back. We faltered, unsure what to do – we didn't want to just stand there. Suddenly we saw four Smiths breaking away from the horde and running towards us. Not wanting a repeat of what had just happened, we turned and ran for the main doors, but of course, they were chained shut.

"Shiiit!" We pulled at the chain, trying to break it off or loosen it somehow. As the Smiths caught up one of them grabbed my neck; I threw a punch over my shoulder and was blocking a kick when I felt the back of my coat being grabbed, and was lifted into the air. I heard the skylight being thrown open and craned my neck to see Tom staring straight up as we flew through the roof.

We landed on the top of a city tower block, Tom setting us down gently on the concrete. We collapsed ungracefully, panting and leaning on each other. He crouched down in front of us and all we could do was grin.

"You're good," Hannah finally managed. He laughed softly, but his face remained quite solemn.

"I didn't even ask Morpheus, but I had to come for you," he said quietly, and we looked up. "I though I'd never see you again."

"Neither did we," I replied.

"Well, somebody up there likes us," said Hannah, "the whole damned lot of us."

He reached out his arms and enveloped us in a huge embrace, and as we squeezed him back, we all began to laugh.

OoOoO

I opened my eyes and could feel blood in my mouth, but ignored it as I saw Morpheus standing by my chair. He reached out a hand to help me stand up, which I gratefully accepted and pulled myself to my feet. On his face was a smile, small but profound, and he kept hold of my hand even after I was standing. I clapped him on the shoulder, and no words were needed for us to tell each other we were glad to meet again.

Trinity was smiling at me from behind Tom's shoulder, and after nodding to her, I looked around for Link. He was sitting at the monitors looking as though he'd just had a nervous collapse.

"Sorry, Link," Hannah laughed, "Was that a bit much for you to watch?"

"He shot you…and Neo…" he muttered, and I suppressed a giggle. Morpheus motioned us all into the dining cabin where there were enough seats for us all to sit together. I scanned the deck for Niobe, hoping to thank her for her part in coming with us to meet the Architect, but she had already gone.

When we were seated, Morpheus folded his hands and addressed us.

"So the Architect wanted to kill you."

"Apparently so," confirmed Hannah, fiddling with a strand of hair, "Were you guys watching?"

"Yes, but Neo had already jacked in by the time all the Smiths arrived," Trinity replied.

"Really? Then how did you know?"

"Niobe figured it out," said Link, "'Cause she remembered how the Architect might think you were a threat to the system or something."

"Oh, is that what it is? He never explained."

"He never does," commented Trinity sardonically. Morpheus took a deep breath and continued,

"If this is the case, then I'm afraid it will be too dangerous for you to enter the Matrix again."

"What!" Hannah dropped the lock of hair and stared at him.

"In fact, it may be too dangerous for you to even enter any simulations, since he is obviously capable of inter-programme transfers."

"Shit…"

"I'm sorry, but if the Architect wants you dead, then every part of the machine world will be looking for you."

"So…we can't ever go in the Matrix? Ever? What about To- Neo?"

"He doesn't seem to want me to die," our brother said, "I only get attacked by Agents because I'm a rebel, not because I'm the One."

"Then, we've gotta stay here? In the Real World? For the rest of our lives?"

"Don't sound so put-out," joked Link – we had forgotten, he had no plugs, so he'd never been in the Matrix at all, and never would.

"Sorry, Link," said Hannah, with a smile. "It's just…we kinda wanted to be able to go back sometimes…y'know, visit places, maybe go back to Salisbury…"

Morpheus looked at us kindly.

"Even if you weren't who you were, that never would have been possible. None of us can ever go into the Matrix casually, it's too dangerous." We looked at the floor. "If you make no appearance in any programme, the Architect should figure out what you're doing and step down the search."

"Okay," said Hannah, quietly. "I guess we don't really have much of a choice then. But…" she stopped, and we looked at each other, the same mischievous idea growing in both our minds simultaneously. "Can we just make one final little hack? Something we gotta do."

OoOoO

"This is a bad idea," Trinity mumbled as she and Morpheus stood next to the exit phone impatiently. "The Virus Twins are gonna kill them…"

"No they won't," said Morpheus with quiet confidence. "They've learned that lesson. They know what they're doing this time."

OoO

There was a knock on his office door, and the Merovingian looked up with irritation from his book.

"What is it?" he spat.

"A couple of young ladies here to see you, sir," came Cain's voice. The Merovingian's face brightened.

"Ah, let zem in, let zem in," he replied, his voice considerably more amiable. When he saw the twins who had escaped him walk unaccompanied through the door, he couldn't decide which was harder to believe: his eyes or his luck.

"Apollo! Artemis! How wonderful to see you again." He rose and placed a friendly hand on Hannah's shoulder, which she shrugged off immediately and looked away.

"Veuillez cacher votre visage avant que ve vomisse," she said with genuine disgust. Please hide your face before I vomit. He stared at her in open-mouthed amazement, probably having never been talked to in such a way his entire life. I moved over to him and he looked down at me, his face turning red.

"L'impolitesse, l'insolence-" The rudeness, the insolence

I interrupted him with a sharp slap in the face. "Je suis mort quand vous avez enlevé ma jumelle. Refaisez-le, et je vous mettrai dans un mixer. I died when you abducted my twin. Do it again, and I will put you in a liquidiser."

He rubbed his cheek and tried to smile, "Je n'ai pas la /enlevé/…j'ai la /emprunté/…" I didn't /kidnap/ her, I /borrowed/ her… Hannah snorted indignantly.

"Des connieres!" Bullshit! Following my example, she strode across and kneed him swiftly where it hurts. He staggered backwards and clutched the corner of his desk, but as we began to leave he made a final attempt at retaliation,

"Quand je crie, les Jumeaux Fantômes vous tebasseront!" When I shout, the Ghost Twins will get you!

We looked over our shoulders, and Hannah gave him the most derogatory look I've ever seen her come out with.

"Aller sauter d'une falaise, branleur," she muttered. Go jump off a cliff, you wanker. And we slammed the door behind us.

OoOoO

A series of loud clanks issued from beneath us as the Nebuchadnezzar's feet snapped out, and the ship shuddered as we landed just inside Zion, Gate 5. I stumbled into the control room, trying not to lose my balance as the ship juddered around. Hannah was sitting in one of the chairs, feet up on the panel, swivelling gently from side to side. She was staring through the windscreen at the scene unfolding, appearing to be observing the city – but I could sense her detachment.

_I don't want to live here for the rest of my life. I don't want to be stuck underground, I need /sunlight, even if it is only CG._

I found Zion fascinating, but unfortunately my twin didn't share my enthusiasm. It was one of the few differences we had been developing slowly over the past few days. While everything was happening, right from the first message we had received from the Architect all that time ago, we had thought we were just approaching it as our old selves. It was only now that it was over that we were starting to realise we had been changed by the ordeal. Since being forced away from me, Hannah had become more childlike, and I more protective – we had always equally looked out for each other, but recently the balance had been tipped in favour of me protecting her. I sat down next to her and put an arm round her shoulders.

_It's not so bad. Who knows, we might meet some nice guys who /aren't/ covered in plugs._

She looked up at me and smiled, and I hugged her. At that moment, Morpheus appeared.

"Are you ready?"

The bay was a hive of activity as we plodded down the steps that had unfolded from the Neb's belly. We adjusted the packs on our shoulders and looked around, taking in the atmosphere of the city. Stopping in the middle of the platform we waited for Morpheus, Trinity and Neo to follow us out. Link was last, but we turned to him first when the four of them were standing together in front of us.

"Thanks, Link, you've been a great Operator," said Hannah, and we each gave him a hug. He smiled and patted our shoulders.

"My pleasure."

Trying to keep the good-byes brief, Hannah turned to Trinity and continued,

"Be nice to our brother. He may be the One, but he can be a bit of a whimp sometimes." The three of us giggled as his expense, and I noticed him look away and mumble that he would pretend he didn't hear that. "Shame we haven't had time to get to know you better, Trin. We're expecting you to come visit us next time you're here! We could have a girls' night out." She laughed again, shaking her head, as we stepped in front of Morpheus.

We paused momentarily, unsure what to say to him. In the end Hannah just said,

"Thanks Morpheus. For giving us our brother, and our freedom. It's been an honour." He smiled as we each held out a hand to be shaken.

"No, the honour is mine," he said - just as he had told our brother, who was the final person we had to say good-bye to. It was so frustrating to finally see him again, then only have a day or two with him before being parted.

"Still can't believe it's really you," commented Hannah, as we looked him up and down. "You'd better come back soon, and I don't care if you're the One, don't you dare get yourself killed by Agents." His face melted before cracking into a smile.

"I'll try to stay alive," he assured us. "Thanks for the advice, it wasn't really a priority before."

"Very funny." Hannah slapped him playfully on the arm, and before she could back away he had grabbed us both and we hugged each other. He released Hannah first and as she stepped back he whispered in my ear,

"Take care of her."

I smiled and nodded, before Hannah added,

"Bye…Neo."

He smiled and as I stepped back to join her, we inhaled deeply, taking a long look at our 4 shipmates. We knew we had to go; they had duties to attend to and we had a new life to start. We started walking backwards, not wanting to take our eyes off the only familiar faces in the entire 250,000-strong city. Finally we had to break ourselves away

"See y'around," we said together.

OoOoO

Morpheus folded his arms behind his back in his idiosyncratic way, and looked sidelong at Neo. They both knew it wasn't the last good-bye, but Morpheus understood it was still hard for him to watch his sisters go. He put a hand on Neo's shoulder, and they began to walk back to the Nebuchadnezzar, followed by Link and Trinity.

Morpheus paused on the bottom step as the other three climbed back up into the ship, and looked back, watching as hand-in-hand the twins disappeared into the crowd.


End file.
